Christmas Peekaboo Boxes and Placecards

I got the notion that I wanted to make these for both family tables at our Christmas dinners. This one is what they look like our family celebration today here at Bob's parents.

I found these at splitcoaststampers , and I thank Brenda Quintana for making it so easy to reproduce these. The template allows you to print out 2 per page, and it shows you where to score and what size punch to use...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

It started off looking like this. I got up early before we left Saturday and trimmed and scored these as much as I could before we flew. I knew I couldn't bring my paper cutter that has a scoring blade through security, and Bob had vehemently declared we were NOT checking any luggage. Then I packed 2 stamps and 2 pads, knowing I would have my niece's Stampin' Kids markers at my sister's house. Mikayla colored the ones for my family while I completed the ones for Bob's side.

When you fold along the score lines, it looks like this when it's open. There's a small piece of acetate (2"x2") that's taped inside the interior flap square (I used my 1 3/8" punch) that folds over the treats. (I got the last bag of plain M&M's in the Target on Sunday!) I contacted my MIL and sister to see what colors would coordinate best with their tableware. Both were using true red and holiday green, so that worked out well!

If you're still reading, here's an update on Michael's personal quest for a white Christmas:

We arrived Sat. afternoon safe and sound in Chicago and as we finally cleared the dense fog about 200 yards above the runway, my son looked out the window and sadly said, "it hates me." I didn't know what he was talking about until I realized that he was lamenting on the fact that there was NO snow on the ground. The city that had been blanketed with 9" not 48 hours before was now a sloppy, dreary mess of bland green and brown. The only remnants of snow were those crusted around the edges of parking lots and curbs of driveways. Being that he's 13, he didn't cry about it or even really dwell on it all that long, but joked cynically about it. When we were out to dinner, he stomped around on little mounds of the white stuff and did manage to make a few snowballs with his bare hands that hit us when we were not expecting them (wink wink).

The temperatures dropped through the floor later that day and the winds howled at 40-50 mph as we went to sleep Saturday at my sister's house. The next morning the ground was dusted with white. While I knew it wasn't going to be good packing snow because it was SO cold--temps were in the 20s with bitter wind chill Sunday--he had to brave it to see what the possibilities were. He was out for maybe a minute and declared it unfit for packing. Still, there was a smile on his face, and that made it all good...

Merry Christmas, dear friends! Find some way today to express your love for those in your life. We are all so blessed...