Holiday Cheater

O.k. I admit it. I'm a total cheat on the goody bags this year. The holidays have been so hectic - I'm mean let's face it, two parties and three concerts in eight days is a bit much - that I just didn't get a lot of baking done. That means I didn't have little treat bags of cookies and candy to hand out to everyone in the department today. Although I know my coworkers do not expect me to give them food, I have certain expectations of myself, particularly around the holidays. One of those is to provide something yummy for my department members to munch during final exams. So Monday night as I graded papers while my son finished his last guitar class of the semester, and Tuesday night while I graded more papers while waiting for Jeff to finish his last caroling gig with the kids, I mulled over what to do about the cookie-less tins in my kitchen. The answer came to me somewhere between the 60th and 90th novel packet that I could cheat. I could use the frozen cookie dough we purchased from the choir fundraiser to put together 20 goody bags - and it worked, too. Everyone gushed about my baking skills! Little do they know I didn't make any of it from scratch.

Yesterday, I baked five kinds of cookies - vanilla sugar, snicker doodle, chocolate chip, cranberry chunk, and apple crunch - after school. With two sheet pans filled, it only took me three rounds to get them all done. While some cookies cooked, others cooled, and ultimately they all went into little wreath-printed cello bags I picked up at Dollar Tree a couple of weeks ago. Since the grading was done and the cookies are a hurry-up-and-wait sort of thing, I decided to make some book marks for my English teacher reader friends. I found some cute patterns on a calendar I received at Half-Price Books, copied some parts on to card stock and cut them out. (The pictures were dogs and cats with doctored author names and bios like "Harpurr Lee author of How to Kill and Eat a Mockingbird" or "Sir Arthur Canine Doyle author of The Hound of the Bassetvilles.") Once everything was cut out, I glued the pieces to strips of pretty scrapbook paper to give them some pizazz. Thus, each teacher ended up with a goody bag of five cookies, plus four book marks, and a holiday card. These little gifts didn't cost much in the way of money or time (considering I put together 20 gifts - start to finish - in a single afternoon). Of course, the payback I received in smiles and appreciation today made it time well spent. (Not to mention that I could once again look in the mirror knowing I had fulfilled my Christmas mission at school!)

In addition to these little bags, a couple of my close friends received an extra gift. Again, this was more about remembrance than extravagance. Several days ago I was surfing the internet looking for homemade gift ideas when I came across a patchwork clipboard. This seemed perfect for teachers who pace the room with clipboard in hand every day, so I gave it a try. (Here's the link, though I didn't use the exact layout or materials shown:  http://janesapron.typepad.com/janes_apron/2009/11/patchwork-clipboard-a-tutorial.html) The basic idea is to use different sizes of squares and rectangles cut from coordinating scrapbook papers to decorate a plain clipboard (which I bought at Walmart for a dollar each). Decide how to arrange the squares and rectangles, and then glue them to the clipboard. Once all the paper is on the board, coat the top with a layer of glue to seal it. The directions I found used Mod Podge as the gluing agent, but since I didn't have any, I used plain white craft glue, which seemed to work fine. This little project took less than an hour for both clipboards - including the time it took me to select and cut the papers. Both of my friends thought these were adorable, as did I! As a matter of fact, if I started early enough, I could see giving one of these to everyone in the department next year. While the girls like the patchwork look, I think the guys would like a simpler design done in their school colors, perhaps. Of course, cammo or sports papers might also be a good choice. The possibilities are endless.

So even when time is short and a little cheating is necessary, I guess it really is the thought that counts.