Santa's Workshop/Kitchen is officially closed!

I started this post right before Christmas when I has looking at my disaster of a kitchen and wondering what had happened. I took a quick inventory - 260+ homemade/handmade/hand assembled gifts/goodies/treats went thru my kitchen for the Holidays.

So, Since I almost have our Christmas trip entry done, here is a pre-Christmas one to make me feel like I have actually accomplished something.
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Last night, as Steve was very strategically using his entire 5'11" frame to hold down the sofa, he said something to the effect of "Whew - I can't wait for this to all be over!" Huh? OK, I gotta hand it to him for helping with the primary treat bags. The rest has been lots of moral support! Thank you Steve!! There will be at least one cheesecake left for you!!

I am not complaining - I really love all of it and thrive on the projects. Really, if it wasn't these treats and little gifts, it would be some other obsession.

Stick a fork in me, Jerry, I'm done!!! (Kramer - Seinfeld)

These cute 10 little bundles above have about 75 more friends. For our primary Christmas gift, we give each child a CD of all the music for 2008 and of course some candies. Our chorister's husband burned the CD;'s, one of my counselor labeled the CD's and stuffed the candy and Steve and I tied and tagged all the cellophane bags.

For our entire primary board - teachers, scout leaders, etc., we gave each a bag of yummy dipped pretzels made by one of my counselors and secretary. My other counselor and I packed them - tying the bows, packing in holiday themed Chinese take-out containers. The big problem here? I bought these really pretty deep green and gold containers after Christmas last year cheap to use for this year. I bought 40. So I thought. Turns out either I can't count or they are tricky to count. We had 20! So I had to run out and buy more. Didn't love the holly print as much but it worked.

I decided to do a simpler version of my usual hand made card. Semi-handmade is what I called it this year! I made a digital collage photo with a pre-printed sentiment and still HAD to card stock mount it and tie it. I couldn't help myself. That is what I do! BUT this year it was not layers and layers of cutting and piecing - definitely a simplified version. A few years back I significantly simplified the envelope process with a spreadsheet and with Microsoft Word mail merge - printing the envelopes! I highly recommend this part.

Birthday Party treat bags . Cute, inexpensive Tinkerbell stuff from the Dollar Store. I assembled while I was at gymnastics with the girls. Multi-tasking...

Two Teacher gifts - I was at Target and in the Dollar Spot, they had the plastic popcorn containers that look like paper bags. I bought enough for each teacher's family, bundled up some microwave popcorn bags, added some movie theatre style boxes of candy and a gift card to Blockbuster.

Several years ago I started making caramels for my Christmas treats for friends and neighbors. I used Martha Stewart's recipe and for years, perfect caramels. Boxed perfectly, wrapped with a band of paper and a monogram style label. The last three years have yielded failures - too hard, too soft, buying new candy thermometers and everything! One year, I even sent Steve to the store for some jelly jars and I made "'Oops my caramels didn't set' sauce!" Years of perfect caramels...now this! So, trying to find something uniquely "me" I decided to call on one of my tried and true...Cheesecake. This year I went to Crate and Barrel and bought 6 mini spring form pans and now, I am making tons of mini cheesecakes! (OK, 38.) Who knew my "world/ward famous" recipe would yield exactly SIX 4 1/2 inch cheesecakes? I need to work on the packaging, I started simple this year with a clear plate and cellophane. Next year? 6 more pans to speed up the process and maybe the perfect box!!