Tuesday Before Christmas

https://freevintageillustrations.com/free-vintage-christmas-cards-with-decorated-tree/

 

A Christmas Tree

"I have been looking on, this evening, at a merry company of children assembled round that pretty German toy, a Christmas Tree. The tree was planted in the middle of a great round table, and towered high above their heads. It was brilliantly lighted by a multitude of little tapers, and everywhere sparkled and glittered with bright objects. There were rosy-cheeked dolls, hiding behind the green leaves; and there were real watches (with movable hands, at least, and an endless capacity of being wound up) dangling from innumerable twigs; there were French-polished tables, chairs, bedsteads, wardrobes, eight-day clocks, and various other articles of domestic furniture (wonderfully made, in tin, at Wolverhampton), perched among the boughs, as if in preparation for some fairy housekeeping; there were jolly, broad-faced little men, much more agreeable in appearance than many real men -- and no wonder, for their heads took off, and showed them to be full of sugar-plums; there were fiddles and drums; there were tambourines, books, work-boxes, paint-boxes, sweetmeat boxes, peep show boxes, and all kinds of boxes; there were trinkets for the elder girls, far brighter than any grown-up gold and jewels; there were baskets and pincushions in all devices; there were guns, swords, and banners; there were witches standing in enchanted rings of pasteboard, to tell fortunes; there were teetotums, humming-tops, needle-cases, pen-wipers, smelling-bottles, conversation-cards, bouquet-holders, real fruit, made artificially dazzling with gold leaf, imitation apples, pears, and walnuts, crammed with surprises; in short, as a pretty child, before me, delightedly whispered to another pretty child, her bosom friend, 'There was everything, and more.' "

                From Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens, 1812-1870

In addition to making treats, I've been busy wrapping gifts. One of my gifts is an Italian dinner in a bag, as I mentioned in this post on gifts to add to your grocery order. Here's how I wrapped it all up. I had a brown paper craft bag (reused from last year), red tissue paper (also reused), red ribbon (again reused), and a printed page of clip art (illustration of different pasta shapes) that I individualized.

After cutting out the clip art, I glued it onto the front of the bag, then filled the bag with the Italian food items, added the tissue, and tied with the ribbon. Simple enough.

For the next gift, I didn't have enough gift wrap. And the newspaper that I thought I had can't be found (we don't take a regular paper, but get one free every few months). But what I did have are grocery store ads. Colorful, but it doesn't quite say "Christmas". 

I wrapped the box in the ads and took it out to the garage.

Using silver spray paint, I covered the ads.

I added some diagonal swipes of gold to the silver to help obscure any ad markings that might peek through. And finally, I topped the gift with a bow.

In the kitchen, I'm still whipping up goodies for gifting -- Monday, a batch of thin mint cookies and some individual cocoa mixes.

The cocoa mix is simply powdered milk, cocoa powder, and confectioner's sugar. Layered in the plastic cone on top of the cocoa mix are mini chocolate chips, then holiday-colored baking sprinkles, and finally mini marshmallows. When I decorated cookies over the weekend, I saved the baking sprinkles that didn't stick to the icing. I think they look festive layered in the cocoa cones.

I hope your week is off to a great beginning!