Our Homemade Christmas gifts

For the past two (or three, I don't even remember) Husband and I have made "goodie bags" for our families for Christmas.  This year, since I actually know how to sew, I decided to make a reusable tote for the goodies to go in.  We were giving 6 bags total. One for my parents, my sister's family unit, my bothers's family unit, Husband's parents, his sister's family unit and "Cousin Jessie" as Son loves to call her now, got her own.  That's right, no sharing for her.  Unless she takes pity on her parents. :-)

This might have been my favorite bag.  But really, I liked all the fabric a lot. So, it was hard to pick.  All six bags were different.  Since "tacky sweaters" were all the rage this year, I think there's a bit of tongue and cheek irony to this one.  I think the name of the pattern was "tree and rabbit sweater"  I also got it in blue.

inside the bag: homemade chex mix, homemade fudge, homemade butterfinger bars and homemade gingerbread men

Chex mix:  I mostly follow the directions on the box.  More pretzels, more nuts, more spices ... but mostly the same.

The Fudge: I promised my mom I wouldn't give out this recipe until after the died.

The homemade butterfinger bars:  oh. my.  Mandy told me about these last year and I've been thinking about them ever since.  I used this "recipe"   She recommends waiting a day or two to let the bars "set" before you dip them in chocolate.  I left mine uncut for a day.  Cut them and then let them set for another day.  seriously fabulous and really easy ... except for the whole waiting two days thing.

The gingerbread men:  Husband and the kids made these (gingerbread isn't really my thing).  I'm pretty sure he just used a recipe he found online.  The kids decorated the cookies with milk chocolate.

I wanted to add buttered pecans as a 5th container, but our pecan tree was pitiful this year.  We barely collected enough pecans for 1 pie!  eh, maybe next year.