…mason jar cookie gifts…

Last Christmas, influenced by my own increasing overwhelm at the sheer amount of stuff in our home, I wanted to do something more experience-based for our nieces, rather than a gift that my sister-in-law would have to find a home for and trip over for the next six months (quite possibly I am projecting my own toy-avalanche experience…)

Obviously, we both had similar thoughts, because not long after posting our gifts, her gift for the children arrived, a very cool DIY fort kit, that the children still play with – I will be sure to share more on that later, for those looking for more DIY gift ideas.

Our gift wasn’t nearly as creative, sadly, so I might need to up my game this year! We went with two cookie-in-a-jars (or is it two cookies-in-a-jar? Grammar pedants, your input would be appreciated). Using some mason jars we had in our jam stash, we put together two of our favourite biscuit recipes and turned them into jar style, with some labels attached with directions.

I’m sure there is some very technical way to ensure it turns out, but we simply removed the wet ingredients from the list, and added the dry to the jar. The wet were then listed on the tag, with some minor modifications, such as melting butter where it would normally be creamed.

While not the fanciest of gifts, I guess 7 & 9 year old girls aren’t suffering from Pinterest Inferiority or Jar Overload the way that us adult social media scrollers tend to be. I’m working on getting this years gift packaged up and hopefully in the post next week.

Around here, our first official Christmas milestone has come and gone, with St Nicholas arriving overnight to drop off jammies and lollies and a book & dvd for the small folks of the house. 6am bright and early, they were up and looking for what might be hidden in their shoes. I could have done with a bit longer to digest my coffee in peace, but on the upside, it meant chores were done early, and while they watched their new movie, I managed to squeeze in some sewing for a last minute project – doesn’t everyone start a quilt 13 days before it would be due for delivery?? I am four rows of ten together, and then it should be a quick run to a finished top – I may need to change my plans for fancy free motion quilting to a basic straight line variant instead, to get it done. But get it done I will. I have some advent activities to set up tonight. I’ve finished my first Christmas readalong so need to download another to start after I finish work tonight. And done a few rows of sewing. There may or may not be a strong coffee and a late night in my very near future…