Christmas Wrap-up

This was not a very creative Christmas at the Summerer house. To be honest, we've been a little preoccupied with baby preparations, so Christmas was almost something we just had to get through. As a result, we did give away a fair number of gift cards. To make that a little more appealing, I ordered these cute gift card tins from Gina K Designs and decorated them with retired Christmas paper from Stampin' Up! I wrapped some taffeta ribbon around the tin's lid just like Gina so they could be reused. The tags are tied on with silver cord. I inked each tag up with my markers so I could color coordinate it with the tin. Pretty simple stuff. This tag was from the level one hostess set Party Punch that retired in the 2006-2007 catalog.

For the neighbors, I made my own hot cocoa mix and gave it out in the tea tins that Gina carries. This idea originally came from Nichole Heady. I used the same recipe as Nichole, except I added a little bit of cinnamon (maybe 1 teaspoon). I find that where you buy your spices can make or break a recipe like this. My dutch processed cocoa and cinnamon (Extra Fancy Vietnamese) comes from Penzey's Spices. They have the best stuff! It's pricey, but I especially love their vanilla extract.

Anyway, to decorate the tin, I used the retired Like it a Latte set from Stampin' Up! and Holiday Treats from PaperTrey Inc.

One last hot cocoa tip! Every night I have a cup of diabetic hot cocoa. I tried the sugar free stuff from the grocery store, but it was flat and not very chocolatey. So, I came up with this instead: 1 cup of milk, 2 packets of splenda and 2 tablespoons of dutch processed cocoa. Yummy and only 15g of carbs. The perfect chocolately snack for a gestational diabetic! Plus the calcium is good for the baby. ;)