Billions of (rice) baggies…

Today was one of those epic days. I was up at 5 AM to get Tyo off to a school ski trip, and really didn’t stop running until the kids got home from Hip Hop at 7:30. Then it was time to Make Presents For Teachers, since tomorrow is the kids’ last day of school pre-Xmas.

The best thing* about moving is that all the old ideas I’d used on previous teachers are new again—so it was the perfect opportunity to re-use the rice-bags-as-teacher-Christmas-presents. I love rice baggies. Throw it in the microwave for a minute, you’ve got a heat-pack. Keep one in the freezer for a cold pack. All the cozy of a hot water bottle without the mess. I’ve been told that using flax seeds is even better than rice as they don’t have that rice-smell, but on the other hand I don’t find the rice-smell unpleasant, flax might go rancid eventually, and, most importantly in this case, rice is something I generally have around the house. 😉

Syo and the Waif were my main assistants tonight. Of course, as soon as the two for my kids’ teachers were made, the Waif and her sister, Fyon, began clamouring for their own bags. Since we’ve all had colds recently (actually, the Waif has a very lively variety of pneumonia), how could I refuse?

And once I’d made baggies for my nieces, well, obviously I had to make baggies for MY kids, since all ours are in boxes somewhere. (I should probably point out that Syo sewed her own baggie as well as the one for her teacher, and she and the Waif did the majority of the rice-filling, so really I was not doing this on my lonesome.)

And then, just as I was finishing up Tyo’s bag, Stylish** returned from putting the Waif and Fyon to bed with their heated baggies, and asked if maybe, just maybe, very sweetly, I could make up two more for her girls to give to their teachers tomorrow as well.

It’s possible I may be a sucker (especially when it comes to my nieces). But two more baggies were made, for an evening total of eight… so I guess it only felt like billions. We did use up just about all the rice in the house. And Syo did a very lovely job of wrapping them up with cards and bits of lace.

Now if I can only get through the rest of my Christmas sewing…

*OK, possibly not THE best thing. But a very nice thing indeed.

**Sister-in-Law, mother to the Waif and Fyon