Snowed in = mini hot cocoa gift packs!

From top: houses on our street; back deck; measurement at about 10am.

We are officially snowed in today! We are supposed to get between 12-24 inches of snow - the most since the blizzard of 1996 (in Northern VA) & the big snow storm of 2003. Dizz has been having a ball in the snow...he likes to grab the snow in his mouth & throw it around, lol.

 Snow mustache!

Since I can't really go anywhere, I decided to finish up the mini hot cocoa gift packs I made for my family, co-workers & a few neighbors! I got the directions, template & recipe from this cute blog I read - Lolly Chops. I followed the recipe to the letter, but added 2 large marshmallows in each baggie so the recipients could plop them in their cups of hot cocoa! I did do a few things differently though in assembling the packs (see Lolly's directions for getting the baggies ready to fill):

Step 1 - get all the ingredients together & mix the hot cocoa mix:

Step 2 - fill the baggies with the mix:

Step 3 - plop two marshmallows on top of the mix:

 

Step 4 - use little rubber bands to close the baggies:

 

Step 5 -  (important) cut & fold template, place baggie inside & staple top of cover with the top of the baggie (so that the bag is attached to the top of the template/cover & does not slip around; I trimmed off any plastic sticking up from the top of the cover):

Step 6 - punch two holes at the top of each packet (with staple in the middle) & tie ribbon thru the holes to finish packet:

These were such a hit when I gave them to my co-workers & I bet my neighbors will love them just the same! Try it out, it's very easy, cute, cheap & fun to make!