Holiday Gifts for Teachers, Crushing It This Year!

Holiday gifts for teachers, something you’ve probably typed into Pinterest if you’re a mom, right? Because it’s one of those things that we want to get right, earn our own little “great job” sticker to add to our mom file. Or maybe the need to impress our teacher never goes away no matter how old we are, or the fact that it isn’t our teacher, it’s our child’s. Nevertheless, with Christmas fast approaching I wanted to give Brady’s teacher something that was thoughtful and showed effort, so I decided to go the baked goods route and make cookies.

I love making cookies, mostly because I love eating cookies. I thought I would love making cookies with my child now that he is old enough to participate in such things. I was wrong! Making cookies with a three-year-old is not all the fun our photos would have you believe. It goes a little more like this……

Mom sets out all the cookie baking tools, decorations and supplies
Mom bakes cookies while child plays with cookie cutters
Mom waits for cookies to cool while child opens sprinkles and dumps on floor
Mom hides sprinkles
Mom places cooled cookies on plate, ready to decorate
Mom opens frosting. Child dips hands in frosting and covers face.
Mom hides frosting
Child eats half of 5 cookies while mom is cleaning up frosting disaster
Mom hides cookies, gives up cookie idea till child is in highschool

So as you can see, this baking cookies together to give Brady’s teacher clearly did not go so well. And now it’s naptime and I’ve got a batch of half eaten cookies as my thoughtful, well planned teachers gift. Crap! Time to refuel myself with caffeine and head out to the store. Right now is when I’m thankful for my coffee maker and these Dixie® To Go cups. Because I don’t have time to make a coffee run and I don’t need one more thing to clean after this big mess. I love that I just can pour myself a cup and run to the store really quick while Brady is napping and dad is watching football.

Maybe I need to rethink this teacher gift thing and go a different route. Yeah, baked goods are great and all that, but do you think teachers really want another plate of cookies, DIY mug of hot cocoa or loaf of pumpkin bread? Or would they be just as excited to get a gift card for shopping or a nice dinner. Or a bottle of wine! Seriously, I’m thinking bottle of wine is the winner….

Either way, I’m going to just file this day away as a Pinterest fail and move on. Because even though things don’t always turn out perfect, as moms we crush it everyday. And especially during the holidays when we add 973 more things to our already crazy list of things-to-do. Moms, it’s time to give yourself a break and ditch the idea that you need to be perfect. Don’t let the holiday stress steal your sanity. Take a breath, refill your Dixie® To Go cups and remember you are doing the best you can, and that is perfectly enough.