Hello, hello! I have been busy over here with two finishes - I shared those on Friday, and you can get all the details of the "His & Hers" Walk About quilts here. And then I turned my attention to some small gifts to share with the grandkids, friends and neighbors. But before I go into detail about those, let's take a look at Marsha's small gift bags at Marsha's Spot.
As you can see, she has an assortment of colors and prints. They sew up quickly and I have adjusted the size as needed. Head over to her blog to find the link for the pattern.
I will be helping my Mom to put together a few things for her neighbors. She has selected a Chicken & Rice casserole that is easy to prepare by simply adding some water. She also chose a Grandma's Noodle Soup. Here are the recipes and preparation instructions.
You can place the can and the bag in a large soup mug/bowl. Mom is simply using a small gift bag. We will tie it closed with a ribbon and attach a tag with the instructions:
In a small pan place 1/2 cup water and 1 Tablespoon butter. Bring to a boil. Turn off. Add drained chicken from the can and the casserole mix from the bag. Mix well and let stand for 5-8 minutes. Top with shredded cheese. You can microwave, if needed to melt the cheese. Enjoy!
Mom chooses to include the fresh chopped veggies with the noodle soup mix so that the recipient only needs to add water. :)
In a separate bag, add 3 diced carrots, 2 chopped celery stalks and 1 chopped onion.
Place both bags and a large can of chicken in a bag. Attach a tag with the cooking instructions.
We will be adjusting the recipe to make 1/2 batches of the soup ingredients to be 1 quart because the intended recipients are single; and doubling the casserole recipe since it will be gifted to a couple.
You could use some gift bags like Marsha's for the gifts. I plan to make some to hold the small goodies that are on my to-do list:
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| 8malted milk balls and 1red sour cherry candy |
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| a small bag of marshmallows |
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| hot cocoa mix, marshmallows & peppermint stick |
I will be assembling a few cookie jar mixes for friends... You can find the recipes and instructions here. I have included the recipes for these as "special" and fall into my restrictions - gluten free, corn free, sugar free, soy free and dairy free. When I make up the mixes, I will use the special recipes so that if we don't gift all of them, I can still mix up myself and enjoy. ;)
Dave and I prefer giving "consumable" items as small gifts for neighbors and friends... who really needs another small knick-knack or gadget. We saw a towel warmer at walmart the other day... really? It is large and just doesn't seem practical to us... We live in a society that goes out and purchases an item when they want/need it. It seems that we have excess everywhere and we live in a disposable world... if something breaks many don't bother trying to repair it. Nope! Just dump it and go buy a replacement. Just one of the reasons we like to give something to be eaten ;)
So sorry... I'll stop the rant there... ;)
With my list of "gifts/goodies-to-make" done, Dave and I focused on addressing our Christmas cards and getting the shopping done for the grandkids. Heather has been sending me updates about their Elf on a Shelf, Sugar. So far, Sugar has "stolen" Mom's phone to take sELFies with each of the girls as they slept, gone bungee jumping from the master bedroom ceiling fan. Most recently, Sugar left some new Christmas jammies and Elf on a Shelf Cookie Mix. Heather doesn't go wild with the shenanigans... she has enough shenanigans going on in her house without the help of an Elf! LOL
All of the gifts for them have been wrapped as well as the miscellaneous Christmas Stockings that we do each year. To remove the temptation from the kids to peek and snoop we wrapped the stockings into the box with the gifts. Since we haven't actually discussed any chance of seeing them during their holiday break, we are taking the gifts to drop off at Heather's place of work Monday. Our grandson, 16, made the basketball team and we will be attending his game in the afternoon. It will be the first time we have a chance to see them since before their baptism in February. Prayers for a joyful reunion are greatly appreciated!
I have slowly pulled out a few Christmas decorations... our quilted Christmas stockings, the Manger for our Nativity scene and a pinecone/nut wreath that we hang on our porch near the front door. Our tree will come out in about 10 days. The next item to come out will be the gold tinsel garland to display all of the Christmas cards on.
When I finish assembling all of the small goody bags I will pull out my scrapbooking supplies and work on the photos from 2019... and then watch for another penny sale to get the photos from 2020 printed. ;)
Are you still working on last minute gifts?
What are some of your favorite neighbor gifts?
Leave a comment... I'd love to hear from you!
Keep Piecing,
Melva
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