Goin' Out with a Bang

I started this blog on January 1 of this year.  It's now December 31 and I feel it only fitting that my last blog of the year be on the last day of the year.

Overall, I am considering the first year of blogging a success. I will have posted 15 times, an average of once a month. Considering that my last blog had 20 posts over a 3 year span, I consider this a win.  I also have over 1,000 views...and my last blog had a whopping 263.  Oh the power of Facebook.

Besides actually posting, I totally did what I set out to do - I domesticated the crap out of myself.  I did two cake decorating courses.  I have canned like it's my job. And I have cooked. A lot.  I did a few of my post-wedding projects, but I still haven't finished the scrapbook. Oh well.  I'm still calling this a win.

The finale to my domesticated year is the domesticated holidays.  We (and by we, I mean me with the dishwashing support of Aaron Zinn) did food gifts this year for our friends and family.  I also hosted my first cookie exchange!

The idea for food gifts came about when I found Taste of Home's Food Gifts magazine.  I love the specialty Taste of Homes magazines - they even have a canning one! They always have really good recipes that I end up making over and over.  I already knew that I wanted to give our friends jam as part of their Christmas, but I ended up adding cookie mixes to the gifts as well.

The inspiration to my holiday domesticated madness!

Mixes - oatmeal cookies, holiday M&M cookies and peppermint hot cocoa

I will say that the original idea was to wrap the jams and the cookie mixes with a base in cellophane.  That turned into a painful and expensive experience and thus, the gift bag is what I ended up going with for most of the gifts.  I also laminated the recipe card for the cookie mixes because, well, I have a laminator and I can.

The base that I originally wrapped with my printed out and laminated recipe

My vision of what it should look like.  I forgot to take a picture of a finished product - just know it was beautiful, but a pain.

Another idea that came from the Taste of Home magazine was a cookie exchange.  I had heard of cookie exchanges before, but never really wanted to do one.  Until this year, the year of the domestication and food gifts.

A cookie exchange is quite brilliant if you give cookies as gifts to co-workers, teachers, or friends.  Each person makes multiple dozens of the same cookie and then you swap the cookies.  This allows each person to have a variety of cookies to give (ahem - or eat) without having to bake a bunch of different recipes.

I used Paperless Post to create my invite and sent it out via email about a month ahead of time.  The holidays are crazy with our crowd - we usually have at least 3-4 Christmas parties to attend - and it gives people time to plan what they want to make.  I also used Paperless Post because I had a second card that explained "the rules."

My evite from Paperless Post.  Fun fact - we used them for our wedding save the dates!

The rules!

Overall, it turned out really well! Everyone brought enough cookies and I was able to make 6 cookie boxes for my co-workers.  I didn't have enough wrapping supplies for everyone to use, but I have totally rectified that situation for 2015.  After Christmas, I stopped by AC Moore, Michael's and Joann's and cleaned them out of their food gift supplies.  I was able to get over 60 boxes and bags for about $20.  Get ready ladies, because 2015 it is ON!

Our super full dining room table covered in snacks and cookies!

The cookie boxes

Inside the cookie boxes

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and 2014.  I have super high hopes for 2015 as some big changes are coming (and no, they don't involve a baby).  I also received lots of new kitchen toys for Christmas so expect some posts - especially with Bertha, my new massive pressure cooker! See you all in 2015 and thanks for reading my ramblings!