School Christmas Treats

I swore after Halloween I was done with treats for the year.  That lasted about, oh, a week?  And then I saw this...

A Lightening McQueen Stocking.  Red embossed felt with a silk topper with a picture of Lightening from Mater Saves Christmas.  It practically leaped off the shelf into my cart.  But I was going to be good.  Just 2.  For the boys.  And I actually walked away.  I think I even got two aisles over before the little voice talked me into going back.  And even then I counted them out, and then put them back.  And then grabbed them again... Along with princess stockings for the girls.  But I was good - just as many as I thought I needed.  Not half a dozen extras, just in case.... [yeah... so totally kicking myself for that later.  When will I learn?]

So then there had to be something to go in them.... And just to show how destined I was to get the stockings in the first place at the very next stop I found Christmas character cups.  And then red and white striped crazy straws.  Perfect.

It was coming together so nicely.  All I needed then was one more "big" thing and a treat and I would be done.  And I knew just what I wanted to get - a puzzle.  So I headed to the store and picked up the puzzles.  Easy, right?  All done.  Until I came home so execited to assemble a sample and see what it looked like and realized that the puzzle box would not fit in the stocking... Ack.  I still really wanted to include a puzzle, but since I was going to have to disassemble the thing anyway....  I decided I would rather get the wood puzzles.  So back to the store I went.  And that's when the insanity really started.  Between the disassmebling, packing, rolling, gluing, stuffing, packaging, taping, tying, touching my nose and jumping on one foot hoopla it was quite an adventure. 

So then all that was left was the treat.  And I could have done some nice candy canes, or chocolate santas, but oh no... that would be far too easy... Instead, the second I thought about treats holiday popcorn came to mind and my mouth started watering and I knew that was what I wanted to do.  On the bright side it is really easy to make - just takes a little time and drying space.  But of course it also meant more packaging, and stuffing... And making toppers.  And gift tags... And I may have gotten a little carried away...

Just a smidge.  But they were oh so cute.  

And the popcorn?  Really tasty...

Then it was just a matter of tying tags.

Getting everything together.

And then stuffing.

And stuffing en masse...

Needless to say I think they turned out really cute.  And if my kids are any indication the kiddos are going to love them.