Christmas Creations!

This year I decided to make everyone home made presents for Christmas, mainly because home made presents are awesome... and mostly because we needed to provide good gifts on a low budget. I didn't realize how much fun I would have creating all of these wonderful concoctions! I thought I'd share some photos of how the presents turned out, and how hard it was to not eat them all (well, the edible ones, that is). Knit hats normally don't taste very good. Too dry. 

 So most of my home made gifts this year were "____'s in a jar," which consisted of either pies in jars, peppermint stick hot cocoa or ginger blueberry pancake mix in jars. They all sounded delicious. I got the recipes off of a few different websites online and adjusted the ratios to fit my mason jars.

Above is a blueberry pie in a jar. I bought very small cookie cutters in different shapes (but used mostly hearts) to cut out pieces of the crust for decoration.

 This was the apple pie I made for Grandma :) This little guy had Splenda in it instead of sugar. Yay, Splenda! I also sprinkled a bit of cinnamon on the top of it.

 I got a little wild with the different designs for the pies - it was so much fun.

  I obviously couldn't send the out of town relatives pies in jars, they would have spoiled. So the out of towners got the dry goods - above is the ginger blueberry pancake mix. These puppies actually had crystallized ginger and all sorts of yummies in them, so they should have been really tasty (sadly, I didn't save any for myself).

And, of course, I had to write directions on how to prepare them! You can't rightly make pancakes without adding some liquid and eggs. :) Well, I guess you could but they'd be very dry...

 Above is the peppermint stick hot cocoa mix. It also had its own home made tag filled with directions. Sadly, I didn't get a photo of one. It IS delicious; I can speak from personal experience! After making so many batches and drooling over them, I finally made one for myself (I'm a hot cocoa hound). Below I will show you my wonderful experience of mixing and making peppermint stick hot cocoa mix! 

 Taking the jar off... by the way, I had to hand crush all of those peppermint sticks (they were actually round peppermint candies, not sticks).

 Flop contents into a bowl!

 Stir until well mixed!

 (Well mixed)

 Place desired amound into a mug of hot water (or milk), stir and drink! And boy, did I! Speaking of which, I need to make another batch because I'm already out.

 I ended up having an extra pie, too... so I baked it to see how it would actually come out.

 I was somewhat wary of baking it right in the jar, but it was a canning jar so it theoretically could withstand the temperature. It did, by the way.

 Straight out of the oven!

 And, of course... it needed a little bit of whipped cream. It was delicious. Daniel and I shared it.

Anyhow, that about wraps up the Christmas creations. I also created some chapsticks, vitamin c serums for the ladies (anti wrinkle for the win), home made soaps, a creative framed photo and a few knitted hats... all of which I have no photos for. Oh well. Horray for home made gifts!!