Christmas Candies

Each year we make homemade treats as gifts for neighbors and teachers. Last year we made sugar cookies. As I spent multiple nights icing into the wee hours of the morning, I determined that this year's efforts must be simpler (at least icing-free)! So, when I stumbled across a recipe for "Holly Jollies," I knew I had found my answer! (Who can argue when they tell you they can fill twelve gift bags in half an hour! Even if I triple that, I'm still doing GREAT!) :o)

So here we go . . .

Here's the chocolate and peanut batch. (We also did chocolate with rice crispies, white chocolate with craisins, and white chocolate with crushed oreos. They were all very yummy!)

Notice the smile in the muffin tin as well as on her face! :o)

One batch down, three to go! They really were incredible easy--even with a multitude of other tasks (distractions!?!?) including lunch, nap times, crafting, "Mommying," etc., it probably took me less than two hours from start to finish to turn out 12 dozen candies with "help."

It actually took me almost as long to get everything bagged and tagged!

In addition to helping me, the kids also decorated lunch sacks which we used to combine groups of bags (all the teachers in Children's Church for example.) My only disappointment was not being able to find white lunch sacks this year. Oh well. Life goes on. :o) But for the record, yellow paint does not show up well on brown sacks. :o)

I cut cheap sponges into Christmas shapes using my cookie cutters as patterns. (If I'd been thinking ahead, they would have been color coded to the appropriate color paint. But I wasn't.) :o)

Yeah for Daddy's assistance in the stamping process!!

Both munchkins were obviously pleased with their contributions. :o)

It was definitely one of the simplest and stress-free gifting enterprises we've undertaken! What a blessing as this month seems to have not slowed down one iota! :o)