Presents for teachers

Bonjour! It's Kate, using the guest pass once again, this time to ask... if you have school-age children, what do you give as teacher holiday gifts?

Personally, I'm uncomfortable when it comes to gift-giving for my children's teachers. In most cases, I don't have a close relationship with them and I don't know them as a person outside the classroom, so it's difficult to know what they might really like. But at the same time, a plant or a shop-bought box of sweet treats feels very impersonal. Artwork by your child is cute, but they must receive so much of it. And in France, gifts for their classroom or a gift card to a store would probably be seen as inappropriate. In the end, I've been doing baked things, with the little cabbages helping, for holiday and end-of-the-year presents. So far, these gifts have generally been well received.

Tonight, the children and I put together their presents for their teachers. We took clean jars from our glass recycling basket, scraps of Christmas-y fabric for the lid covers and gold ribbon from my stash of odds & ends. We filled them with three kinds of cookies/candy: lackerle (Alsatian cookies Mr. Mommy en France made a few weekends ago, they taste better with age); chocolate nut meringues I made; and mendiant chocolates the children made. Recipes for the last two are over on my blog.

Happy holiday baking!