9th Day of Christmas Giveaway with Tracie Miles
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Welcome to the 9th Day of Christmas Giveaway!!
Each day, December 1-12th, I am featuring a fellow Proverbs 31 sister and an aspect of Christmas. You’ll get to know her and she, in turn, will offer a fabulous giveaway! Simply leave a comment on her post to be entered in the drawing.
And, one soon-to-be-very-giddy gal who comments on all 12 posts will win the GRAND PRIZE! You may comment on all posts until Monday, December 13th at 5:00 pm EST when the winners will be announced. (to see the grand prize and get caught up on the posts click here)
Now, for our P31 sister of the day, the lovely Tracie Miles!
Tracie Miles has been married to her husband Michael for over twenty years, and has three wonderful children, Morgan age 16, Kaitlyn age 14, and Michael age 10.
Tracie’s first love is being a mom and a wife. She is a member of the Proverbs 31 speaker team and also a contributing writer to the Encouragement for Today devotions and the P31 Woman Magazine. She has been working in ministry with Proverbs 31 for over five years.
In her spare time, Tracie loves playing tennis several days a week, writing on her blog, spending time with her family, and enjoying shopping while sipping hot Peppermint Mocha or Pumpkin Spice lattes from Starbucks.
Favorite Teacher Gift Idea
My sister used to be an elementary school teacher, and every year she would get dozens of little knick knacks, apple ornaments, sticky note pads, door hangers and other miscellaneous items that were “teacher-oriented”. Although she appreciated the thoughtfulness of the children in her class, she always came home with an abundance of “presents” that she had no idea what to do with. After years of teaching, she had an attic full of little!
After years of discussions with her about what gifts and goodies that she appreciated most, we began a tradition in our family of giving holiday baked goodies for teacher gifts, instead of inexpensive store bought gifts that the teachers really had no use for. Our annual gift baking sessions quickly became a fun family experience, and has evolved into a tradition that we look forward to every year.
Even now, that my girls are both teenagers, and my son is turning a young man at the tender age of eleven, everyone still willingly participates in the baking and preparing of the goodie bags.
Not a year goes by without a huge smile from our teachers (and other special people in our life) followed up by a thank you note letting us know how thoughtful, and delicious, their gift was!
We pack our individually wrapped baked items into festive holiday gift bags with sparkly tissue paper, and tie them up with curly ribbons. Another great addition is to pick a meaningful Bible verse, and attach it to the curly ribbon, so you are in essence, giving a gift for the body and the soul!
Every year we have a variety of sweets for the gifts, but there are two recipes that have become a main staple in our teacher goody bags – homemade caramel popcorn and pretzel candies. Below are these two oh-so-easy recipes, that make a great impression, and are oh-so-yummy! Enjoy!
Caramel Popcorn:
1 cup unpopped popcorn (pop before putting caramel on)
2 cups brown sugar
1 stick of margarine
½ cup White Karo Syrup
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
(add peanuts or mixed nuts if desired)
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Heat sugar, margarine, syrup and salt, stirring constantly (watch carefully, it will burn easily). Boil for 3 minutes until sugar is dissolved and remove from heat. Stir in baking soda until foamy and mixed. Pour over popped popcorn in a baking pan, stir until all is coated. Bake for one hour, while continuing to stir every 15 minutes. Let cool and transfer to large bowl or container.
Pretzel Candies:
1 -2 bags of Rolo candies
1 bag of mini-twist pretzels
1 package of halved pecans
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Very lightly spray the pan with Pam, and place as many pretzels as possible on the baking pan. Then place an unwrapped Rolo candy in the center of each pretzel.
Put pan in the oven for a few minutes, just until the chocolate is soft, but not completely melted. Remove from oven, and press one pecan half down on top of each Rolo, flattening it to the pretzel. Allow to cool and remove very carefully with metal spatula so as not to break the pretzels, and transfer pretzels to another dish or container. Yum!!!
Tracie’s Giveaway
For her giveaway, Tracie will send the winner the following:
~A DVD of her Christmas message “Angels In Training”
~A DVD of the classic Christmas film It’s A Wonderful Life
~And, to munch on while watching the movie, a bag of popcorn. :-)
To be entered in Tracie’s giveaway, leave a comment with your best teacher gift idea. Or, if you have shopping to do, gifts to wrap or other holiday duties to attend to, just say, “I’m in!!!”
Sweet Blessings,
I’m in.
I like to give homemade cards and gift cards!
I love when my students give me gift cards to restaurants or Starbucks, since getting a frappucinno is a huge treat for me and I won’t spend my one money on it! My favorite gift is the homemade card with a nice, long note telling me what they like about me and what they like about something they have learned in my class. Of course, any books donated to my classroom library are ALWAYS appreciated.
One of the joys of homeschooling now – not having that added stress. Although, we do give homemade goodies or gift cards to others on our list.
Thanks for the recipes. :)
I’m in!
We often make hot drink mixes. In fact one year I made Karen’s recipe for Mocha mix with a few alterations. Many of the teachers that got that asked for the recipe! I have also made small fabric purses for teacher gifts or jewelry.
Rebecca Ann
Cake in a mug
Don’t have to do teacher gifts anymore. But didn’t make goodies for the teachers.
We have always gave our teachers baked goods with a thank you note attached.
i’m in! =)
My best idea is personalized book plates. I made some for my best friend, she got married this summer :) with her new last name :) and she was so glad to have them.
My children’s teachers send a letter each year requesting specific items for the classroom – very helpful. But I have no ideas of my own at the moment – so I’m in.
We like to also make homemade gifts like pecan pie muffin mix, cowboy cookie mix or a hot chocolate mix. It is inexpensive and the kids can help mix everything and it really is from them.
My mom is a teacher so I know all about the abundance of littles :) The baked goods are a great idea, just watch for those teachers who may be watching there waistline (aren’t there already enough tempations this time of year?) but what seems to be most appreciated are the gift cards or certificates for services. If you feel like it’s impersonal, try to find out something that is the teacher’s favorite or something that you know they’ll use personally (rather than a grocery or superstore that will probably go to something for others…)
I can’t really think of any other better teacher gift that little treats or “snackos” that are favorites of your family. Adding a little notecard that says, “My favorite thing we have done in class so far is –” I’m sure this would really be appreciated by the teacher as a note of encouragement and give her some ideas as to what to “keep doing” in class.
Being a former teacher I got my fair share of trinkets, knick knacks and all things apple! I do everything I can to stay FAR away from those things. Something that has become a favorite is homemade notecards. Every teacher can use notecards and so we make a set of uniquely beautiful thank you cards.
We do homemade goodies of our teachers to. It started as an inexpensive gift idea and a way to get the kids involved in their teacher’s gift. We do chocolate covered pretzels. This year we will be doing bags of pretzels for our new neighbors to.
P.S. Tracie and I could be distant sisters. I have a daughter Morgan and a son Michael to. I also love the peppermint mocha!
We always made them potholders (who can’t use another potholder) with my son’s handprint on the and a saying like, “Thank you for having a hand in shaping my life.”
Edie
Baked Good always are perfect teacher gifts. My mom is a teacher and she always loves getting certificates to get manicure/pedicures. It makes sense, she’s always on her feet and working with her hands with those little kids :)
As a former teacher, I always appreciated anytime any student thought to bring a gift. Gift were not necessary, yet many families wanted to show appreciation in some way, so I was thankful for whatever they brought! That said, you do get an abundance of teacher-like things, but I would either use it, share with other teachers, or donate the supplies. Homemade gifts were also sweet and yummy!
(Those Rolo pretzels sound delicious!) I like to made homemade hot cocoa mix to give away to friends and such.
I love the rolo/pretzel treats. They are yummy. I also like to make them with a pretzel, hersey kiss and m&m on the top. I love to bake for the teachers also and am a big fan of giving them a gift card to the local grocery store or their favorite restaurant.
Blessings to you! Caroline
We have often used baked goods as gifts, but this year I found another great idea in the November issue of Southern Living – a mulling spice bag you can easily put together to create a festive holiday smell in your home for parties and family gatherings. It’s sooo easy and smells soooo good! The other great part is it only takes a few minutes to put together. Here’s the recipe:
8 black peppercorns
6 whole allspice
6 whole cloves
2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
3 (3×1 inch) orange rind strips
5-inch square of cheesecloth.
Place all ingredients in the center of the 5-inch square of cheesecloth, gather the edges, and tie securely with kitchen string. Bring 2 spice bags and 8 cups water to a boil over medium heat; reduce heat to low, and simmer 3 to 4 hours for a festive home fragrance.
I like to give baked goods, and our teachers request, rather than gifts, donations to the local food pantry. I think that is very generous of them!
Several of my kids teachers have sent notes home indicating items needed for the classroom in lieu of personal gifts to the teacher. I love doing this. I have a friend who is a teacher so I know about all the “teacher treasures” received each year. We usually do gift cards – and try to tailor them to a favorite restaurant or store.
We make homemade peanut butter balls (Reese’s) every year. We give those, with a gift card – either to Target or the teacher’s favorite restaurant if we know it. We put them in a Christmas mug in a festive bag. The candies are usually the biggest hit, but the gift cards are just a nice touch and lets them do something for themselves. I get the mugs because I personally LOVE drinking coffee from a Christmas mug. It just feels festive!