DIY: Wrapping Up Christmas

We are just 4 days from Christmas Eve! I am getting super excited :)

Monday I finished all of our Christmas shopping and spent the afternoon leisurely wrapping them while watching a few holiday movies.

I used craft paper, some felt, an old red sweater, green ribbon, twine, my hot glue gun and 3 rolls of paper, a few rolls of ribbon, and beautiful tags from Target--all 60% off after Christmas last year.

Here is how it turned out...

dressed up & casual wrapping ideas

brown bag $.50...dress it up with scraps of ribbon and rosettes

i'm loving these sweater and eyelet trim rosettes

i've been feeling stripes of late

more rosettes

i love how the eyelet fabric gives this brown bag a feminine twist

names spelled with twine instead of tags

felt flower instead of a bow

the twine and sassy green tag dress up this craft paper wrapping

lines of twine

I love the stripes of twine and ribbon

business casual

super cute...right?

big ole golden bow

green, red & gold

i think this one is my favorite. the eyelet trim with the twine bow are super cute

C for Miss Cindy

What kinds of fun wrapping tricks have you used before?

Oh and be looking for some holiday treat recipes coming up in the next few days!

The best way to spread Christmas cheer...

There is no one who embodies Christmas spirit like my Mom.

I grew up simply in awe of Christmas, and after visiting my parents this weekend, I realized that... well... no wonder. Every Christmas our house turned into a winter wonderland. I took a few pics with my mom's camera and wanted to share with you all the magic that surrounds Christmas at the Packett house.

the beautiful stone fireplace with gorgeous red and gold mantle decorations

pretty decorations

one of my mom's Santa collections

another Santa collection

the fireplace and mantle

nativity in the kitchen

Santa's on the baby grand

Hallmark church collection

gold & white Christmas tree

decorations in the blue guest room

hutch

"the jennie tree" and a hand-painted ornament that my parents made for their first Christmas tree

Jennie ornament (we all have a collection of A"dough"ables)

Mom's beautiful tree

Hanging with Lil Miss

I had no clue what being an aunt would feel like. I knew it was going to be pretty cool, but seriously of all the hats I wear...being her Mimi is my favorite.

Honestly it makes my day every time I hear her say my name...and her hugs & kisses are the sweetest things in the world.

This weekend Foco and I went home to visit my family and celebrate the annual Bowen Family Christmas....which meant we got to spend some serious quality time with my parents, my big sis & bro-in-law...and my favorite niece. We also got to see my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and their kids...which was equally as awesome.

Here are some of my favorite pics of the weekend (ps excuse how rough I look...we had just finished eating breakfast!):

my lil helper in the kitchen

enjoying a candy cane and helping me crush some for our recipe

stealing a lil piece of candy cane

helping me melt the almond bark...i love the candy-cane chin!

sweetness

watching me work

helping spread out the peppermint popcorn bark

amazing...

hanging out before church with her piggy-tails

love her lil hair-do

love those lil legs

her lil cheeks!

Okay...you get the picture...she's adorable.

I hope you had an awesome weekend too!

Peppermint Popcorn Bark

Growing up I didn't like peppermint. Probably even as recently as two winters ago I would have turned down any dessert with peppermint.

Then I bit into a Peppermint Joe-Joe from Trader Joe's.

wowza.

And so now I like peppermint. weird.

Wanna know what else I didn't like?

White chocolate. ugh.

I still don't like the really like rich white chocolates, but it turns out the cheaper it comes, the more I like it.

So...how did a peppermint-hating-white-chocolate-snubbing girl decide to make peppermint bark?

Well a few days ago my friend Kait, gifted me with some white and milk chocolate peppermint bark. And it turns out once I reached the bottom of the tin that I realized I do indeed like both white chocolate and peppermint. weird. 

Also during the giveaway, readers who signed up also commented about their favorite holiday cookie/treat. And peppermint bark turned up. I had recently seen a picture of peppermint popcorn bark on Pinterest and thought it would be fun to try it out.

I found the recipe over here and adapted it just a bit. I even bought the peppermint extract...but I forgot it. (that's okay I am making peppermint meringues this weekend!)

Peppermint Popcorn Bark

2 (3.5oz) bags of Tender White popcorn, popped

1 16oz package of peppermint candy canes, crushed

1 package of almond bark

(You can add peppermint extract or use a saltier-butterier popcorn...but tender white is my favorite)

Take out those candy canes and crush them using a food processor (or a meat tenderizer).

Pop the corn.

Put it in the biggest bowl you have in the kitchen and dump the candy canes on top.

Melt the white chocolate---use the directions on the package.

Pour the white chocolate over the the popcorn and candy-canes in the bowl and mix until the white chocolate covers the popcorn mixture. Pour out the mixture onto wax paper and spread out evenly. Let cool for 20 - 30 minutes, then break into smaller pieces.

We have a white-elefante (i have decided to exclusively use the Spanish word for elephant because I like it better) gift exchange at school today. Remember the peppermint bark I mentioned earlier...it came in this super cute tin.

Then I dressed it up with some twine and one of my pretty green tags.

 If you are giving out gifts at the office, this is a really budget friendly and low labor recipe (which is nice if you still have lots to do before Christmas Eve!).

Vanilla flavored almond bark = $2.88
peppermint candy canes = $.88
popcorn = <$5.00

Okay...I'm off to serve up my Chicken Tortilla Soup at the post-midterm Holiday Party at school today. Wish me luck!

Have a wonderful Friday!