Teacher Gift Ideas

My class showered me with the sweetest Christmas gifts this year.  The kids were so proud to bring in their gifts and get a big hug.  I got some really thoughtful, unique gifts so I wanted to share them with you.  They'd work great for Valentine's Day or even end of the year gifts.

Personalized cookies, gifts, favorite candies, gift cards to my favorite stores, holiday scents, new cups... an amazing combo of all of my favorite things!  So, so sweet!

I loved this Christmas snackle box.

December was bonkers.  Extra bonkers in kindergarten.  So this felt like an amazingly generous way to end the month.  I really do have the best families.

Another version of the snackle box.  Two gift cards to two of my favorite spots and fancy chocolates. I can't wait to use this container for snacks or my lunch going forward.

I love a good simmer pot mix.  This smells so good on my stove over the weekend.  And it's one of the prettiest ones I've ever received.

Then I got fun splurge items like these Geometry towels.  I've always wanted to try them.  They are so soft and really beautiful.  They feel so much nicer than my regular kitchen towels.

My favorite thing of all was the parents who took the time to write me a thoughtful note with my gift.  To tell me all the reasons why their child was loving kindergarten.  I absolutely made my day to hear that their kids love coming to school every day, that they appreciate our joyful classroom and that their kindergarten experience is exactly what they hoped it would be.  I'm lucky to teach at such a fun place.

I hope you got a few new ideas for teacher birthdays, holidays or end of the year gifts!

Nutella Pastry Pinwheels

I have a new and improved Nutella Pastry Pinwheel recipe to share with you today!

Remember when I shared this - Nutella Bites

They were delicious, but I figured out a way to make them even better!  I took these to a carry in luncheon at school and they were gone so fast.  When you make them as a pinwheel, they stay fresher longer and extra nutella keeps them soft inside.  

Look at those delicious flaky layers + nutella swirl.  Amazing!

Ingredients:

2 pastry puff sheets

1 cup of Nutella for each sheet/ 2 cups total

4 T granulated sugar to coat

Powdered sugar to top

An extra thick layer of nutella across the whole pastry sheet.

Roll up tightly.

Coat the outside in granulated sugar.

Slice into one inch rolls.

Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

Let cool for 15 minutes and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

These were delicious warm out of the oven, but they were also fantastic the next day.  I sprinkled them with a fresh layer of powdered sugar before serving.

You'll have to give these a try!  I can't wait to make them another time or two over Christmas break.

Happy Friday + Christmas Break!

Happy Friday, friends!  I don't know about you, but somehow December has felt LONG and gone by so quickly at the same time!?  We have done a lot of fun things, but teaching and working has just felt like a lot.  I'm happy to recap the highlights of our week and check in with you today.

The best parts of our week were... definitely not:

van trouble.  Working to get that resolved.

scheduling life around one vehicle.  Asking for rides and coordinating to the max.

weird health issues.  Also working to get that resolved with some follow up appts.

But we did have some good times in the midst of a stressful week.

1. Teacher snackle box!  Look at this cute box! Chocolate chip cookies, Christmas gummies & the cutest little sugar cookies.  I loved it so much.

 

2. Junior high teachers (and any teachers!!) LOVE Amazon gift cards.  Olive had the idea to do a gift card for each of her teachers because junior high teachers don't get a lot of gifts.  She had the best time being Santa Olive passing out presents to her teachers.

3. Being without a car for a couple of days has its perks.  My dad chauffered me to an appointment, a breakfast date and work :)  On Christmas pj day at school.

4. Christmas parties!  We headed to a new spot downtown for a delicious night of pizza.  Kevin's work party was at Spankey's Una Pizza Downtown.  The pizza was so good!  I love a festive dinner + date night.

5. I've been working on my nutella pastry recipe!  Stay tuned for a new and improved recipe next week!

6. Our Christmas cards are done!  Mr. Mittens was a great supervisor.

7. Leo got invited to a super fun birthday party at Deep Blue.  It's a local indoor play place.  His buddy is in my class so it was really sweet to see them play together and visit with everyone.

I offered to help him with his card.  He refused any help and said he already knew what he was going to write.  Sweet guy!

8. I really do not enjoy waking up at 5:30am every school day, but these cuties are always so excited to see me.  It kind of makes me forget that it's dark out and I'd rather be sleeping.

9. Leo loves PEZ.  He's been setting up ellaborate scenes.  This is his Christmas town.

10. Our elves have been busy!  We had a ton of fun doing some Christmas baking.  And the kids loved the snowflake toilet paper set up.

11. Christmas presents!  My assistant and I worked so hard to make personalized, hand made Christmas gifts for our families.  This handprint art turned out beautifully and we had the kids make a couple of ornaments for their parents.  It was a lot of extra work, but I hope the families will treasure their keepsake gifts for years to come.

I hope you have a great weekend!  I'll check back in next week :)

Linking up with Momfessionals

14 Days of Elf Activities

We have 3 elves at our house - Holly, Jolly & Chris.  They arrive December 1st and do something fun for the kids each day.  They do not make messes or cause chaos.  They are cute and kind and they give the kids something to look forward to finding each morning.

Let's do a recap of our first 14 days with our elves!

New Christmas socks for everyone.

New Christmas sweatshirts for each of the kids.  They have been wearing them nonstop.

Play together!  Little People Santa set and corn starch for oobleck.

Bath bombs!

St. Nick's Day candy filled shoes.

North Pole breakfast.

New fidgets!  The kids have been asking for these forever and I always say no.  Our elves are more fun than mom :)

My kids have LOVED PEZ for years.  This was a fun one!

A chip covered Christmas trees.

They his 12 blue candy canes in the garage.  The loved finding them.

Hot chocolate bar with the cutest hot chocolate ornaments from Target.

A Christmas craft!

Do you do elves at your house?  What have they been up to this month?

Bite Size Christmas Cheese Ball

I made the yummiest change to my Christmas cheese ball this year.  I made them bite size instead of one big cheeseball.  It looked so cute on the serving tray and people loved them.  You got all the good ingreidents in your own personal size cheese ball.

I used this recipe - Christmas Cranberry Cheese Ball + green onions

I topped each small cheese ball with a craisin, green onion and pecan.  They were so yummy!

I served them with everything seasoning crackers and Ritz crackers.

I also did bite sized cheese balls with our favorite chipped beef cheeseball.  Both were so good.  And people loved having their own little cheeseball vs. digging into a big cheeseball.

You've got to give bite sized cheese balls a try this season.