Contents:
Taking Care of Ourselves - Healthy Edible Christmas Gifts
A Practical Tip/Solution - Apple Cider Vinegar
I Recommend - Kristina Has Baby Aloe Vera For Sale
Contact & Policies

Taking Care of Ourselves - Healthy Edible Christmas Gifts
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Do you want to give healthy edible Christmas gifts this year? It's that time of year when we plan our gift-giving, and if you have a tight budget and a creative streak - like me - you may be already busy making your gifts. Maybe in batches?

I've been crowded for time the last few months, so I'm just now reviewing my options. There are plenty of ideas online for gifts with that yummy touch. Gifts that they will gladly eat up, or share around the room, and you don't have to worry about cluttering up their home with object they don't like, or that would make it look messy. I don't know what percentage, but I think a lot of gifts are only enjoyed for a few minutes after opening.

In that case, we might as well give them healthy, edible Christmas gifts. No point in serving up junk food and unhealthy foods. Remember, you and I are keenly interested in healthy alternatives ourselves. We sort of shoot ourselves in the foot if we preach a healthy lifestyle but we give store-bought truffles and cheesecakes as gifts, right?

So, I'm ruling out the jars of decorated Christmas cookies, or fruitcake, candy canes, and things in that vein.

Instead, my short list of ideas includes;
Live aloe vera plants
Potted herbs
Baskets of fruit
Granola bars (my own favourite recipe)
Ointments made from the herbs in my garden, malva, calundula, plantain, etc.
Loaves of banana or zucchini bread (I have a recipe now for gluten-free) with real butter

Otherwise,.. what about some Forever Living Products? (as many as I can afford)
Or, what about printing another batch of my poetry book from a few years ago; I have some new friends now who didn't get one that back when I first self-published it in 2005.

Here's another idea that just wandered by, now that I'm brainstorming. I used to make little gingerbread houses with cardboard cut from cereal boxes. I didn't bake any gingerbread, but glued graham crackers onto the cardboard using royal icing. Then, with the same icing I glued candies all over the little gingerbread houses. (This was when I ran a Pioneer Girls club and we were creating center-pieces for a church banquet). We placed each gingerbread house on a paper plate turned over, which was then a little hill of snow for each house or cottage.

I advised the girls not to eat any of the candies because we had handled them like craft supplies. I believe they all obeyed me, but when we were cleaning up from the banquet some girls reported to me that some boys had been picking candies off the houses during the banquet. Hmmm!

I don't recommend this gingerbread house idea because it is a healthy edible Christmas gift - it is not. But it can be a way to clean up a lot of leftover Halloween candies. You can declare them inedible and therefore now out of bounds. If no one picks at it, the gingerbread houses made this way will last indefinitely as something to look at. The royal icing recipe turns hard, and we know that insects find no nourishment in things that are mostly white sugar.

When I went looking for photos in an old album of these "fake" gingerbread houses, I realized that I had enough to make a longer web page out of this. So you can now follow this link to the complete article - with photos: Healthy-Edible-Christmas-Gifts

I must confess, I feel like I'm unwittingly playing a joke on myself; how did I get from "Healthy Edible Christmas gifts" to gingerbread houses you should NOT eat?

A Practical Tip/Solution - Apple Cider Vinegar
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If you go looking online for vinegar uses, or more specifically, apple cider vinegar uses, you will come upon sites that have up to 100 such ideas or more! I use white vinegar with water in my compost pail after I've buried the food skins and waste in my garden. I do that to freshen the pail and kill any mould spores that may have started there. I also put a splash of apple cider vinegar in my bath to help with itchy skin patches. I've read before that there are many, many vinegar uses, but this last time I went to check online I discovered so many more that surprised me.

Cleaning Electronics

You can clean computer keyboards (done that) and just about everything in the house. You can even clean your carpeting, and make your stone or brick work around a fireplace sparkle.

If you still have CDs and DVDs, and find some that skip and freeze, you can fix them by wiping them with a soft cloth dipped in distilled white vinegar. Be sure to dry them thoroughly before trying them out.

Cleaning Car Windshield

I must remember this one; to wipe the wiper blades on my car, and also to spray the windshield with vinegar/water in 3:1 mix. That is to go a long way in keeping the windshield from letting mud/slush stay on the glass for several weeks.

Vinegar Health Remedies

What about health uses then?

Yes! I found quite a few. In fact, I felt like I'd found more than I could use, so stopped researching further.

For instance, do you think you eat too much? Just sprinkle some vinegar on your food before you eat your prepared food. It won't make it taste bad, but somehow you'll feel satisfied sooner.

Dab vinegar on itchy skin spots with a cotton ball. You may get instant relief, or you might have to reapply it a few times. It is also great for sunburns.

Vinegar uses for hair include shampooing to make your hair shine, and fighting dandruff, with an extra rinse after shampooing.

You can use vinegar to:
stop hiccups, (I tablespoon full),

[See the full article on my website at: Apple Cider Vinegar ]

I Recommend - Kristina Has Baby Aloe Vera For Sale
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NEWS FLASH! I've just found someone who has a number of baby aloe vera plants for sale!

Kristina emailed me to let me know that she has come into a property that is wildly over-grown with aloe vera plants. She is replanting many of them, but has buckets full of the baby aloe vera to sell. Even some that have been put into the soil, are getting roots and she might be willing to sell those too.

Kristina lives in Palm Beach, Florida, so if you are in the USA, there should be no problem with shipping them to you. You need to go to her website, AsMyGardenGrows.com and write to her via her contact form. Then you can negotiate price and methods of shipping.

Check my page on the website about Aloe Vera Plants for Sale - there you will find some photos of Kristina's aloe vera for sale.

Blessings & Thanks!

Ruth Marlene Friesen

Contact & Policies - Constant
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CONTACT INFO: Ruth Marlene Friesen (306)856-7785
903 23rd Street West, Saskatoon, SK. S7L 0A5 Canada.
www.aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com/reachMe.html

Ruth@aloe-vera-and-handy-herbs.com
(If it is your first contact with me, you will to be asked to confirm
by clicking a link in an email before you can get through.
That is just the kind of security we enjoy at SBI)

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business woman is my personal standard.
Your email address WILL NOT be shared with anyone!

COPYRIGHT (c)2015 Ruth Marlene Friesen