While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

Every year, Vivienne and I make some sort of Christmas present for folks.

When Vivienne was 1.5, we made those Styrofoam ball ornaments. She pushed minute colored beads onto pins and stuck them into the balls… She might have poked her finger once or twice. After all, she was 1.5 years old. I was nuts.

When Vivienne was 2.5, we made Christmas magnets. These were super cute. Much easier. And much more age-appropriate. Except, this time, she pushed cute little buttons onto hot glue blobs. She might have burnt her finger once.

This year, as Vivienne is 3.5, we made Cookies in a Jar, mostly because I bought 50 pounds of rolled oats from a co-op. At the time of ordering these oats, I didn’t really comprehend how many oats comprised 50 pounds. Do you happen to know? Let’s put it this way: many, many oats. Upon the arrival of these oats, Ryan informed me that only bakeries buy 50 pounds of rolled oats. He was right. SO, we are whittling away at these oats any way we can.

One of those ways: making 12 Jars of Oatmeal Scotchies for friends and neighbors! (I had wanted to make 12 Jars of Just Oatmeal, but Ryan suggested I was doing that simply to get rid of the oats and not truly considering the best wishes of others. Of course he was right again.)

So, cookies in a jar it was.

‘Ever take on that project?

As it turns out, it’s not as easy as it looks.

Here are some tricks of the trade that I wish I had known ahead of time:

* use a funnel to pour the ingredients into the jar; otherwise, you’ll have a very messy counter-top

* know the proper order of the ingredients: it does matter!

* pack each ingredient down with an ice-cream scooper (or something) otherwise you’ll never have room to stuff in the flour mixture at the top

Despite the hardships along the way, I was quite pleased to realize that, when a quart jar is awkwardly covered with a 7-inch circle of red tissue paper, tied on with brown twine, it resembles a shepherd! Vivienne collected some candy canes from our Christmas Tree and wa-la: shepherds were watching their flocks by night! What an amazing discovery. All without pin pricks or glue burns!