Cookie Trays

So yesterday, using our share of Saturday's results, I put together several cookie trays as gifts. One for our next-door neighbors who hosted an Open House last night, one for our fabulous landlords (Hi Don & Janis!), and one for each of us to take to work as a gift to our staff. I was so pleased with how cute the trays came out, I just had to share!

When we give a gift of homemade goodies, I hate putting it on a paper plate. To me, it doesn't look very thoughtful or well planned. I'd much rather give a goodie gift on a pretty plate or tray. Certainly if you did this too often, you'd go broke giving away plates and trays, right? Well, not if you investigate your nearby Dollar Tree store! Yesterday morning I went to our local Dollar Tree looking for a cute Christmas-y plate, but all I could find were *silly*, cartoonish plates. I'm not really a huge fan of 'goofy' Christmas stuff --- I'm more of a 'pretty' Christmas stuff kind of girl. I was about ready to give up, but just as I turned from the last aisle to leave the store, I found these:Aren't they nice?! They're even prettier in person! They are nice, sturdy, nickel-plated trays. And yep, they were only a buck. But the don't look like they were only a buck. I also bought some pretty white and silver tissue paper, blue, white and silver wired ribbon, and clear cellophane to wrap the trays.

I piled everything on the kitchen tableand then got busy putting the trays together. The centerpiece of each of the trays is a bag of homemade peanut brittle, then some of each cookie variety that we baked. Once the tray was loaded, it was wrapped in cellophane and tied with a bow. I think they came out pretty cute, what do you think?