Oh, you shouldn't have... but you did.

You guys ALL have that gift you give.  You know the one... the person who always brings you something even though you tell them not to.  They're the sweet people in your life who genuinely don't expect anything in return, too, that's precisely why you should do THIS for them... like I did.  :)




Oh yes. It's a gift basket with burlap, go on & pinch yourself. Just wait 'til you see what's inside...



Onto the goodies...



I'm a HUGE fan of repurposing everyday containers. In this case, a peanut butter jar. PS - you can totally remove that pesky "use by" date on your jars by using just a tiny bit of acetone (or maybe regular fingernail polish remover, too, though I've always just used acetone because I know it works for sure).

Here's how to make the cocoa mix:

1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1/3 cup cocoa
1/3 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

Mix all your ingredients in a large bowl and then transfer to your container.

Just for the record, I had to triple the recipe for my large peanut butter jar.  That filled it to the brim & we had enough mix left over for the kid to give it a test drive... he gave it an 8 on a scale of 1-10.  That's pretty good, if you ask me.



Type up a little "recipe" for your cocoa mix...



Make some treats.  For mine, I just melted almond bark and added in things... crushed candy canes, heath bar pieces, pretzel pieces, and peanut butter (hey, I had to empty the jar somehow).  I then spread out each on a sheet of wax paper & let it harden before breaking it into chunks.  For what it's worth,  I have a TON of these little kraft paper treat bags if any of you guys want a few...





Print tags (or hand-write them, I'm not a fan of my own handwriting, so I went the printed route) and label everything! Labeling everything makes it fancy. I like fancy.

To add another splash of fabulous, I also included "toppings" in small plastic baggies that I then tied around the lid of the cocoa mix.  I think that's cute.  And since it's my gift, then I get to call the shots on what's cute & what's not.

Tomorrow, I'll try to upload a printable PDF for the cocoa mix label & little tags... if you guys want it, that is! 

Go forth.  Make gift baskets.  Be merry.