Still hungry?

Are you out and about with after-Christmas returns and sales? If so, here's something else you might want to shop for. This time of the year, I like to buy restaurant gift cards for places that I frequent because they often offer a bonus card with a purchase. Note that the bonus cards usually have restrictions or time limits. Here's a few deals that are still available:

Carls Jr. Expires 12/31/13. Buy a $20 gift card, receive a Six Dollar Thickburger
Daphnes Greek Cafe Expires 12/29/13. Buy a $30 gift card, receive a $10 bonus card valid 1/1/14 - 2/9/14
El Torito Expires 12/31/13. Buy a $25 gift card, receive a $5 bonus card valid 1/1/14 - 3/30/14
Red Robin.com Buy a $25 gift card, receive a $10 bonus card valid 1/1/14 - 2/28/14
Rubios Buy a $50, receive a $5 bonus

If you have a favorite restaurant, you can easily do a quick search online to see to they are still offering gift card deals. Some deals expired on 12/24. 

Oh Christmas Trees

We made a couple of Christmas trees to contribute to Christmas eve and Christmas day dinners. Of course, these were inspired by Pinterest. The trees are an easy way to present a small appetizer. My platter is around 10x12 inches. I used about 4 oz of pepper jack cheese, 6 oz of sharp cheddar, and less than a pint of tomatoes for each tree.

The trees I saw used grapes, but I liked the idea of a more traditional red and used cherry tomatoes instead. The tree trunk and fronds were leftover from a fennel dish we made for Christmas eve. Dill or another herb would also be a nice touch, or leave off the fronds all together. The stars were cut from lemons.

I'm dreaming of a blue Christmas

Here's the second decoration I made for my office. It is made from a old projector manual. A few years ago, our admin was determined to clear out the filing cabinets. It pained me to see all that hard work (and paper) being tossed so I "saved" as much as I could. The tree turned out to be so popular, I gave a "lunch and learn" last week and also, I gave away the tree to a lucky winner. After all, I can make another one next year.

Season's Greetings

I'm old fashioned and enjoy sending snail mail. And did I ever tell you I like matching my stamps to the season?

Jingle all the way

I decided to decorate my office, cubicle actually, for the holidays. This was the first thing I made:

I used a glass block and bells that I purchased from Hobby Lobby and ribbon that I custom printed with an Epson LabelWorks printer.

The hardest part was adding the bells to the glass block in the office. It was a little embarrassing to "jingle" as I walked in with my supplies and more embarrassing to really jingle as I poured the bells into the block. Oh well, better than me singing Christmas carols!

$3.41

Three cents more than last week, but less than this summer. Hope gas prices don't continue to rise through the holidays.