It’s hard to blog around Christmas time.  Mostly because surprises are really, really hard to keep when you are crafting and gifting and you just want to share pictures of all the fun things you’re making for people.

But you can’t post them.  Because if you post them, you will ruin Christmas.

So it’s kind of helpful that I’ve been blogging for over a year now.  Looking back through old pictures, I realized that I can share with you what I made for friends and family last Christmas!  Because that cat is way out of the bag by now.

I also realized that my quality of camera phone has vastly improved since last year. (Thank you iPhone 4S!)  As have my photography skills.  And with my sights set on buying my very own DSLR camera in 2013, who knows what this next year of photos will bring!

So here I go, ruining LAST Christmas.  Because it was hard enough last year to keep this project under wraps.

Last Christmas Brad and I wanted to send something from our home kitchen back to our families on the East Coast.  We had just begun having all of these amazing culinary adventures and wanted to share a little bit of what we were tasting and what we had learned back to them.

At the time, I was heavy into infusing liquors.  I decided to make a giant batch of limoncello for a little holiday cheer.

Brad couldn’t very well send one of his amazing meals via UPS, so instead he did a little infusing of his own.  We picked up garlic and herbs at the farmer’s market and infused some olive oil.

We bought awesome little bottles in bulk…

…And decorated them with twine (wedding supply crafts!), jingle bells and personalized tags.

It was the most adorable and heartfelt Christmas present I have ever given from 3000 miles away, even though the pictures are super saturated with Camera+ filters…

Eek.

We are so lucky that this year we will be flying back to the east coast for a Christmas-Marathon of sorts, spending a little time with both of our families in New York and Maryland.  And although we were specifically told not to bring presents (our presence is present enough blah blah blah…), it wouldn’t be Christmas without a little something to share with family.  So before I go and ruin this Christmas, I’m off to finish up our little surprise.

Happy Holiday Crafting!!

xoxo