Confession: most of my Christmas decorations are still packed. Usually I can't wait to put my keepsakes out on display. Despite this funk, I find myself still enjoying doing things for others. I came across this idea trolling through tumblr. Christmas in a jar! What a great alternative to the traditional plate of goodies.
Luckily for me, my parents have a dehydrator. Drying the fruit became a labor of love. It took days and days. I watched carefully to make sure the fruit didn't over dry and brown. I am beyond ecstatic with how it all turned out. Beautiful! I can't stop admiring these apple, orange and lemon slices.
Then the challenge became finding the spices. Who knew cinnamon sticks were so expensive!?! And tis the season for cloves to be completely sold out. A little whole all-spice, ground nutmeg and bay leaves. Mmmmm!
Once I had all my ingredients gathered I set out my jars and began the assembly.
Every item was decoratively placed in the jar. And then rearranged. And rearranged. I really enjoyed putting these together.
Time to finish them. Coffee filters are very inexpensive. (And we'll have enough to make these jars every year for the next 50+ years.)
Desiree hand lettered the tags, then printed them on brown paper.
Tie them up with some string and DONE.
I didn't have enough stuff left over to make up one for myself. I'm not sure how WONDERFUL the concoction smells, but if it is anything like it smells dry it must be DIVINE.
If you were lucky enough to get one from us, will you please let us know how it smells? (I reduced the cloves by half, because they can be very strong and some people don't care for the scent.) If I can find cheaper spices, making these may become a yearly Christmas tradition.
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