Are You Ready?

The house has been decorated.

I've made lots of my favorite snack mix, for us, and to share with family and friends. You can find this recipe here.

I've baked several batches of my favorite holiday cookies, Mexican Wedding cookies. You can find my recipe here.

I just have to finish gift wrapping and I think I'm ready for Christmas!

Are you ready?

Handmade Holidays Part 3, Gift Wrap

Add a personal touch to your gift wrapping this year! Here are a couple of my favorite simple and low cost wrapping ideas. You'll probably find a lot of these materials around the house.

Get out those scrapbooking stamps and stickers to decorate plain color paper.

You can use yarn, rickrack and ribbon from the craft closet to tie up your packages.

Use buttons to stamp designs on paper, or glue them to handmade gift tags.

And get the kids involved by having them draw and color designs on plain paper. You'll have original artworks to wrap your gifts!

I often use recycled Christmas cards to make my own gift tags and package decorations. I love this idea from MarthaStewart.com, using recycled holiday greeting cards to make your own gift boxes.

Handmade Holidays Part 2, Delicious Gifts

It's been said, "No gift is in better taste than one you make yourself". Whether you're famous for your homemade jam, bread or cookies, consider homemade treats for everyone on your list.

Pack up a batch of favorite cookies in small boxes covered in wrapping paper. I used some small boxes I had saved from other gifts, lined them in parchment paper and wrapped both the top and bottom in pretty holiday paper. Then I filled the boxes with cookies from one of my favorite recipes, Mexican Wedding Cookies. You can find the recipe here.

These jars are filled with two of my favorite salty snacks, seasoned fish crackers, and my own recipe for Chex cereal based snack mix. I found vintage glass canister inspired jars at Target and cute decorated glass containers at the local dollar store. These would also be great filled with homemade granola or you could layer the ingredients for a favorite cookie and include the recipe. Add a pretty ribbon and cute gift tag for a gift everyone will enjoy. You can find my recipe for the seasoned fish crackers here or try my recipe for Chex cereal snack mix.

Everyone has a favorite recipe for Chex cereal snack mix. Here's mine:

Cheryl's Party Snack Mix

1 box Chex corn cereal
1 box Chex wheat cereal
1 box of Cheez It snack crackers
1 bag of Hanover Butter Snaps preztels (you could also use pretzel sticks or tiny twists)
1 can of LaChoy rice noodles (found in the Asian section of your grocery)
Mixed nuts of your choice, about 3 cups - I used a large can of Planters Deluxe Mixed Nuts
1 1/2 sticks of butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Evenly divide the first six ingredients into two or three large baking pans. You don't want the pans too full because you'll need to stir the ingredients several times. Place the pans full of the cereal mix ingredients in the preheated oven for 5 minutes to heat. Melt the butter and add the garlic powder to the melted butter. Once the dry ingredients are heated, drizzle the melted over the cereal mix then sprinkle with the parmesan cheese. Stir well and bake agin for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When cooled, store in airtight containers.
This makes a lot of snack mix, so unless you are having a party you might want to consider freezing some. I usually save about half of the mix in a good quality air tight container, like Tuppereware or Rubbermaid and place it in the freezer. It doesn't actually freeze, it just stays fresher longer.
I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!