hot cocoa – cocktails & gratitude

Holiday Gift Ideas

As I’ve gotten older, I like to focus on gifts that involve an experience. Since travel and public experiences (like a spa day) are limited now, below are some ideas for stay-at-home experiences. (Click on blue text {NOT photos} for more details or to purchase.)

Hand / Foot Treatments: Between the constant hand washing and the cold temps, everyone could use extra hand cream. Buy a package of white cotton gloves and a few tubes of thick hand lotion. (The cotton gloves will warm up hands to help the lotion soak in – also there won’t be greasy hand prints on everything.) Fill several small gift bags with a pair of gloves and one tube of lotion, now you have little gifts for all your girlfriends. To elevate: Include a foot mask with a thick pair of socks and a lip balm.

Manicure / Pedicure: I love these cute polish and top coat ornaments from Olive and June. To elevate: Fill a plastic storage container with a polish remover dispenser, cotton rounds, a fingernail file, buffer and orange sticks.

Spa Time: Include a favorite face sheet mask, bath salts and body lotion. To elevate: Include a facial steamer, a cooling roller and under eye masks. I love this face steamer and cooling roller (store the roller in the freezer and roll over your face and eyes to reduce puffiness and brighten your skin.)

Build Your Own Pizza Night: A pizza stone, a pizza cutter and a pizza peel. To elevate: Include Italian beer or wine and a gift certificate to a local Italian market for gourmet supplies.

Charcuterie Board: Order a custom cutting board and combine it with small serving bowls and a set of cheese knives. To elevate: Add a bottle of wine and assorted shelf-stable charcuterie items like: fig jam, Marcona almonds, olives, cornichons and gourmet crackers or include a gift certificate to a local cheese shop.

Cookie making: A new mixing bowl, cookie sheets, spatulas and cookie cutters for an afternoon of baking. To elevate: Include a Kitchenaid mixer an apron, pot holders and / or a family favorite cookie recipe.

Hallmark Christmas Movie Night: A mug or two, hot chocolate, marshmallows, crushed candy canes and a set of Christmas movie bingo cards. To elevate: Buy glass canisters for the hot chocolate fixings and a handheld frother to create a fluffy hot cocoa. This frother almost doubles the size of your drink, so leave lots of room in your mug!

Book Basket: Fill a basket with your favorite books or an assortment of best sellers. To elevate: Include a monogram book embosser and embossing stickers or a Kindle with a Kindle Unlimited membership. Consider sending the same book to multiple friends and setting up a virtual book club date in January.

Bulb Garden: You can purchase a bulb garden or kit online or from your local garden store. To elevate: Make your own kit with a pot that matches the recipient’s style, a gallon baggie of potting soil or stones, a paper bag with paper white bulbs and don’t forget to include potting instructions. Once planted, the bulbs will bloom in about four weeks. Everyone could use flowers during the January gloom.

Movie Night: Put together a basket with classic Christmas DVDs and treats including popcorn, flavored popcorn seasoning, traditional movie theater candy and bottled sodas. To elevate: Include popcorn bowls and a cozy blanket or a subscription to Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime video.

Game Night: Choose a favorite board game like Life, Monopoly, Trouble or Scrabble, add a deck of playing cards, Uno or Skippo, then add some sweet and salty snacks. To elevate: Send snack boxes and a game like Yahtzee to multiple households and schedule a Zoom call for a virtual game night.

What are some of your favorite stay-at-home experiences? I’m always looking for more ideas.

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Here are some of my recent Amazon purchases.

I love having these airtight storage jars decorating my kitchen counter. I now have three jars holding dried citrus, but soon I’ll be switching them out to hot cocoa, marshmallow bits and crushed candy canes (see below.) I like the borosilicate glass because it’s clear, light and strong. However, KKC has many less expensive storage jar options, if you prefer.

I have patio lights in my backyard all year. I have one set on the arbor by our back gate and another behind the couch on our patio. I love looking out at night and seeing the lights glow in our yard. Note: Instead of buying replacement bulbs, it’s cheaper to buy an extra string and steal bulbs from that string. Also, I have had squirrels chew through a cord before, so keep the extra cord even after you’ve used all the bulbs.

The Capri Blue candle scents are AMAZING! Stock up on these for January after you’ve burned all your pumpkin spice and Christmas candles. They smell like summer and will help get you through the winter gloom. If you don’t love the hot pink above, click here for more fun styles and colors. The Volcano scent is one of my favorites. Note: I also love traveling with this metal tin.

These plaid jackets are really cute. I do think they run a little small so check the measurements and if your dog is close to the next size, definitely size up.

My face is already feeling dry and winter is just starting. Incorporating a face steam into your routine once a week will help purify and hydrate your skin. Make sure you buy a gallon of distilled water to have on hand for your steamer – the minerals in tap water will clog up your steamer.

This is quite the bargain. 100 gift tags and 100 feet of twine for $6.99! I recently made gift bags where I folded over the top of the bag and used a hole punch to make two holes, then I tied the bag shut with twine and added a gift tag. These would also look great if you want to do a more rustic Christmas gift wrap. Consider tying in a sprig of evergreen or seeded Eucalyptus to give it a personal touch.

I recently put together Hallmark movie gift bags for my girlfriends (see bags and tags above) with hot cocoa packets, crushed peppermint candies, dehydrated marshmallow bits (these taste like the marshmallows in Lucky Charms) and Hallmark movie bingo cards from Etsy. Note: the containers of crushed peppermint candies and dehydrated marshmallow bits are huge! Consider Christmas and/or hostess gifts with three canning jars – one filled with homeade hot cocoa (super easy recipes on Pinterest), one with marshmallow bits and one with crushed peppermint. Throw in a tin of homeade cookies (or peppermint bark if you want to use up more of the crushed candy) and this is a gift anyone would love to receive.

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