Sharing the Joy with World Market

Three different schools, therapists, bus drivers, school nurses, three Sunday School classes, a one on one aide…we are surrounded by an entire team of amazing people who help my little family navigate through life.

This time of year I like to give the people who faithfully serve my crazy brood a little something as a thank you.  Nothing extravagant (although I wish I could!), but just something to say “Thanks.  You are noticed.  You are appreciated.”

We have been blessed by having people who are not just doing their job…but who love their jobs.  You can always tell the difference.

So this year, I went to World Market and see what I could come up with for a rather lengthy list of people.  I had always heard great things about their packaged baked goods, and I thought I would try them out this year in the name of simplifying and making my life a little easier.

Oh the temptations!  Everywhere my eyeballs went, there were things that could have easily jumped right into my cart.

That dishtowel?  Red.  Aqua.  Orange.  Ruffles.  Chickens.

Dishtowel, you complete me.

But this trip wasn’t about me.  So the dishtowel stayed.  Boo.

Truth be told, I have never bought a packaged mix in my life (that I can remember).  Usually I just make stuff from scratch…but I made a commitment a few years ago to slowly ease up on the crazy that can be this time of year.  I want it to be fun.  Meaningful.  Filled to the brim with memories.

Simplicity is what drives that.

They had these yummy sounding scone mixes in tons of different flavors.  And they happened to be Buy 1, Get 1 free when I was there.  Bonus!

Lemon Poppyseed, Pumpkin Spice, Peppermint Chocolate Chip, Cocoa Chocolate Chip, Raspberry White Chocolate, and Cranberry.

Yumm-o.

Simplicity: just add water.

Simplicity: mix with a fork.

Simplicity: plop tablespoons of batter onto a greased cookie sheet.

(You can also shape the scones into wedge shapes with lightly floured hands if you prefer.  But that’s just not my gig.  And if people want to judge me for the shape of my scones, they can just go right on ahead and judge me on the shape of my scones.  If you catch my drift.)

(Actually, I don’t have a drift.  But it made me sound tough.)

(I’m really not tough.  I just like to pretend sometimes.)

(Okay, I’m done now.)

Bake for 12 minutes.

BOOM.  Done.

Simplicity.

I think I can get used to this mix business.

Now for the fun part.

I picked up a few of these RIDICULOUSLY cute tins.

It took every ounce of will power to not attach a post-it that said “Please do not throw this tin away.  If you don’t want it, please give it back to Jeannett.  She will give it a good home.”

I refrained.

But I still cringe at the thought of someone tossing them.

And don’t forget the coordinating parchment paper.

Obvs.

I packed them to the brim with a total of 12 non-wedge shaped scones.

And tucked in a few Lindt truffles.

Because you can really never go wrong with truffles.  Ever.

I put together these larger boxes of goodies for the staff behind the scenes: the office workers at Henry’s school, the office staff at Jill’s therapy, Lucy’s preschool, etc.

Jill still rides the bus every day, and her drivers are phenomenal people.

I adore them.

So I put together a smaller box of yummies just for them.

Baker’s twine and a tag with the contents of said box.  One of each flavor.

And truffles.

Always truffles.

(I got those boxes at Joann’s).

I sent the Bigs out to give the first box.

On November 30*.

Except that it turns out Larry is Jehovah’s Witness so he doesn’t “acknowledge holidays” and refused the treats.

Which distressed my kids to no end.  Henry was totally confused and had his feelings hurt that he didn’t want our scones, and Lucy cried.

Maybe if they were wedge shaped he would have obliged.

I had also bought a few boxes of this Snickerdoodle bundt cake mix, thinking I would tuck these darling little bundt cakes of happiness in with the scones.

But I underestimated how many scones I would end up with and didn’t need or have the room for more stuff in my boxes.

I think I’ll bake these up and give them to neighbors later this week.

But really I just wanted an excuse to buy this mini bundt pan.

That is GREEN underneath.

I mean, really.

These people have my number.

For teachers, I had the kids give these ceramic travel cups.

I struggled with what to give the teachers and at first I didn’t like the idea of giving yet another mug (I would imagine teachers have mugs coming out of their ears)…but I finally decided that these were different and besides, they were cute and generic enough that they could re-gift them pretty easily.

And no it wouldn’t bother me if they re-gifted our gift.  Ultimately I saved them some money, right?

The mug sets come from World Market with a little package of ground coffee, which I thought was a cute touch.

But I wanted to make them not so “Hey, I bought you a pre-packaged gift set”, so I added some truffles (again with the truffles!), removed the brown bow and tied it up with baker’s twine and added a cute tag.

I think it looks cuter.

And really…is there anything much more melt in your mouth delicious than hot coffee in a cute mug with truffles and scones????

I think not.

Unless of course the scones were wedge shaped.  That would probably make it better.

But in all seriousness, I’m so glad I took this route.  At first, I was kind of freaking out when I realized how early I would have to do all of this in order to make my post deadline…but now that it’s done, I’m SO glad.  Sure, it might have been November 30 when teachers got their gifts, but I decided that I’m going to do it this early from now on for two reasons:

1) It’s now done.  I don’t have to think about it again.  Cross it off my to-do list.  It wasn’t harried or crazy or last minute.  SIMPLICITY.

2) Teachers are often bombarded with treats and gifts at the end of the month.  One told me that she appreciated getting this stuff early so that they could actually enjoy it.  Turns out that they end up throwing away a lot of baked goods because they just can’t get through it before it goes stale.

So, it worked out for the best.  I’m totally gonna be the crazy early teacher gift giver from here on out.

World Market is hosting a Share the Joy Sweepstakes right now, which encourages a heart of giving.  (I adore this Sweepstakes).

• Grand Prize package includes: A $5,000 American Express Gift Card for you and $5,000 for a charity of your choice
• You could be one of 5 winners (one winner per week).
• The Share the Joy Sweepstakes ends 12/21/12.

You should enter.  How amazing would it be to give a charity $5,000?!  EEK!

You can keep up with World Market through their website, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and even Instagram!  They are social media savvy!

Disclosure: This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™, but all my opinions are my own.

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jeannett

I'm a mom to four. A wife to one. I believe in story. I love telling you about mine and would love to hear yours. There's really no sense in wasting our suffering and not sharing in each other's joy. We're all in this together...even if it doesn't always feel like it.

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