I think about things I’d like to write about during the day
when I’m busy and then by the time I stop being lazy and actually write it, it’s
a long time later.
Since it’s hot as hell outside, and everyone is cursing
summer and counting down to sweater wearing months, I figure it’s a good time
for a taste of Christmas. In July.
This past December, my friend Gretchen and I realized that
we knew very little about office gifting etiquette in our big girl jobs. We
were not longer broke college girls, but we were still broke. Gretchen’s
mother, who happens to be a real life Martha Stewart—the kind of lady who shops
at King Arthur Flour—gave us the wonderful idea to use those adorable little
mason jars to give “gourmet,” home-made hot chocolates out to our co-workers.
So we gave it a shot.
About $30 and 4 hours later, we managed to make enough hot chocolate
gifts for all of our co-workers—at about $1 a pop—not too shabby! Granted, it
takes more patience than Gretchen and I had, times three, because about 20
minutes in, we wanted to quit.
We made two batches:
1.
Mint hot chocolate
2.
Mexican hot chocolate with cayenne pepper and Madagascar-an
vanilla sugar
The mint hot cocoa was kid friendly and the Mexican hot
cocoa was a kick in the back of your throat. It took a few terrible taste tests
to get it down.
Each mini mason held one regular or two small serving of hot
chocolate mix, layered to look pretty, and covered with mini marshmallows. We even bothered to dye the sugar with green
and red food coloring to make it more festive. Believe me, that crap was
painstaking and laborious, and afterwards our fingers were an ugly shade of
red/green/brown.
Little circles of spare fabric served as lid covers, wrapped
with a ribbon that tied on a tiny card cut out of card stock that informed the
receiver what kind of cocoa to expect. Apparently, many of the people who were
given the Mexican hot chocolate didn’t get the memo, but after the first
confusing but delicious sip, they caught on.
It was our first try so they weren’t exactly Pinterest
worthy, but it was a good effort, and everyone in my office appreciated them. I
even got a super cute thank you card from the daughters of one of my co-workers
raving about it—so Booyah! I’m still a fan of the mason jar gift—because you
can put ANYTHING in it! It was an inexpensive thoughtful gift that’s handy when
you have 20+ co-workers and now clue about the gift exchange process at a new
job.