Friday, November 6, 2015

Hot Cocoa Snowman

It's my favorite season of them all, the smells, the music, the lights, and the joy on my kids faces when they run into the family room to see all the presents that Santa had left for them under the tree. I absolutely love Christmas time, but I will also say that it's the time that stresses me out the most as well. Those dreaded hours of searching day and night trying to find the perfect gifts for everyone without breaking the bank.

Last year while looking for some easy but unique Christmas presents to give out, I came across the hot cocoa snowman. He was made from two baby jars, cocoa on the bottom and marshmallows on the top, with a cute little hat and scarf. It was perfect. Easy, unique, and super stinking cute.

I started by finding an ad on craigslist for a pkg of 20 baby jars. After that I was off to Michael's to get some supplies. I was able to find a cute wintery material for his scarf, black felt to make his hat, some buttons for his belly, and some paint markers to create his face. Once I received all the materials, I decided to add a third tier to him and put crushed candy canes in the bottom, cocoa mix in the middle, and mini marshmallows up top.

After he was put together, I just felt like he was missing something. That was when I went to the kitchen to make some coffee and saw the cinnamon sticks sitting in the cabinet. It was the perfect light bulb that went on. Next stop? The liquor store to buy the taster bottles of bailey's. Who doesn't love a little bailey's in there coffee or hot cocoa? From there, I got the roll of twine and began wrapping the baileys to the cinnamon stick to create the snowman's broom. I will say, this was a bit tedious getting it to look how I wanted it to, but I couldn't have been happier with the result. They turned out great and everyone that got them loved it!