Ho Ho Homemade gifts

Hi friend! I hope that this post finds you and your loved ones well. While I love fall and all the beauty she offers my favorite time of year is Christmas. Peep the MASSIVE Christmas tree we have in our backyard during a snow we had a few years ago. With the twinkling lights, music filling the home, aromas floating through the air, delicious foods baking and fireplace roaring it is such a coveted time for me with my family. Earlier this year while my boys and I were reading The Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder I was so struck by how grateful and happy she was to receive a simple orange for part of her Christmas gift. It inspired me to focus on providing gifts that will be made with time, effort and love for my own family this holiday season. So yesterday while my boys played outside I sat in the sun and curated a list of some diy Christmas gifts for this year and thought I'd share it with you! While mine is mostly food based you can get so many different diy gift ideas from Pinterest. Which happens to also be where most of these recipes came from. Ok let's dive in:

🎄Cinnamon Rolls and Icing (I'll freeze it so they can pop it in the oven on a day of their choosing but it makes for a yummy and easy Christmas breakfast to bake while you open gifts)

🎄Bread and butter (The options here really are endless. You can do a cranberry orange bread, apple cinnamon, sourdough etc & the butter can be garlic, honey, cinnamon etc) I personally do a cinnamon bread and a jar of honey butter to go with it. If I have the time I'll make sourdough too.

🎄Cookies & Candy (again the options are so broad but I tend to do candied pecans because you can find easy Pinterest recipes where the crockpot does all the work for you & I make gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies)

🎄Vanilla Extract (so I've wanted to make this for a long time and haven't but I figured now would be a perfect time since it's recommended to let it steep for 1-3 months depending on how strong you like yours)

🎄Hot chocolate mix (I use a recipe my nanny gave me years ago but you can customize this for however chocolatey or sweet you like yours. If you want my Nanna's recipe that I use just scroll to the bottom)

🎄Simmer pot potpourri (yet again you can make this to your own fancy but I will be mixing orange slices, rosemary, cranberries, cinnamon sticks and cloves *and if you have the option you could always add a sprig of a Christmas tree to it*)

🎄Meal of nourishment (while I haven't figured out exactly yet what I'll make you could easy do a soup in a jar or baked dish that can be frozen until ready to make)

The fun thing about this is that you can personalize these gifts in any way you want! You can put them in cute little jars and tie it off with some festive holiday ribbons, make cute labels, hit up the thrift store for bread pans, baking dishes and cute baskets to put all your wonderful homemade gifts in. This is where you can let your creativity shine! I hope that maybe this list helped provide some inspiration and ideas for you to try out this Christmas season. May your family be blessed.

All my love,

Christin

☕️Nanna's Hot Chocolate Mix

In a large bowl mix together the following:

4 cups powdered milk

21.8 oz box of Nestle Nesquick

16 oz instant coffee creamer

1 cup powdered sugar

After combining store in a jar or canister. Add 3-5 heaping tablespoons of mix to cup, stir well and enjoy. While you can use this with water my granny always mixed it with milk to make a creamy delicious hot chocolate. I hope you enjoy!