Rich and I love this hot chocolate/coffee mixture and have a friend who loves it too, so we made her a batch for Christmas in a decorated Mason quart jar.

I began by decorating the Mason jar’s lid. I took some white lace trim and hot glued it to the outer rim of the metal lid, then took a piece of red and white checked fabric and cut a circle about 2″ wider than the jar lid. I used pinking shears to cut the fabric so it wouldn’t fray, and it leaves a fun border. I used Christmas metallic elastic cord link: https://tinyurl.com/6w3wv2h3 and threaded some beads and a Christmas button link: https://tinyurl.com/2p844ucr on it, then tied the cord in a knot so I could loop it over the lid making sure it’s tight enough to stay put. I took some Christmas scrapbook paper and cut it 3 1/2″ long by 2″ wide and stamped Christmas onto it in black ink under where it says “Holly Jolly.” On the back of the tag, I stamped to and from. I used an old Stampin’ Up fancy tag topper punch link: https://tinyurl.com/mrj5kj7p to make the top of the tag. I added the tag to silver elastic cord link: https://tinyurl.com/yckp4xzx and tied a knot and looped it over the lid so the tag hangs onto the side of the quart jar.

To make the hot chocolate/coffee, you’ll need: If you buy a standard jar of hot chocolate mix and dry coffee creamer, you’ll be able to make three batches from them. If you want to make more, you’ll need to buy two jars of each.

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1/2 to 1 1/2 cups of instant coffee…I only use 1/2 cup and I think it adds enough of a coffee taste to it .. I used Walmart’s instant coffee and found it needed to be more finely ground, so I put the coffee into a strainer and rubbed my thumb over it to make the coffee very fine

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon you can use more

2 cups dry coffee creamer

1 1 /2 cup cocoa mix—I used Walmart brand, OR you can make your own by mixing the following: ingredients …but you’ll only want to use 1 1/2 cup of this once the ingredients are combined.

2 c. confectioners’ sugar

1 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 c. powdered milk or instant nonfat dry milk

Stir all of the ingredients until well combined and then put into your quart jar…you’ll have more than a quart jar if you use the ingredients above.

I write the directions on the tag which are: Add 3 tablespoons of the hot chocolate/coffee mixture in a cup with hot water then stir. Some people use larger mugs, so you’ll want to taste how strong 3 tablespoons makes it, and if it needs more, add it.

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