The Gift of a Family Meal

We decided to be a little creative with our Christmas cards this year since we agreed to not buy any gifts for anyone (except Jade, of course). I had the idea of creating little recipe books for everyone out of those flexible 4x6 photo albums. They are usually about a dollar and they have plenty of space.

I picked 10 of our favorite, crowd-pleasing recipes and printed them on a 4x6 recipe card template in MS Word. I decided to add my own little pictures and clip art to each one to make it more personal. I also made a title page with a holiday greeting, a table of contents listing all the recipes, and a closing page wishing everyone a happy new year. I chose some funny food quotes and added them in between some of the recipes, too.

Fortunately, I already own a paper cutter from making my wedding invitations, so I did not have to cut out each 4x6 card with scissors. That might have been too intense considering I made 20 books and each one ended up having 18 separate 4x6 inserts.

All in all, they turned out pretty cute and have been well received. Who doesn't like a new recipe once in a while? I think most people tend to get on rotations of the same 10-15 items. Plus, most of the recipes were pretty simple so even kitchen neophytes should be successful.