Anna, I love those ideas!! I decorate a lot of the time with my kids coloring pages, too.
In fact, Grandma is getting a few pages in her goodie box for Grandparents day.
I plan on making writing boxes for my nephews for Christmas. I bought notebooks, pencils...etc. when they were on sale for school. I'm going to add some prestamped, addressed envies of different sizes for my house in there, too. I'm going to ask them to write, send pics....etc to us. If I can find disposible cameras on sale somewhere, I will add one for each of them.
I am making easy fudge for my Sister as one gift.
I think that I am going to try my hand at the easy melt and pour soaps. I am buying a bunch of candy molds from a lady tomorrow morning for a cheap price. I'm not sure if I'm going to wait and use them for chocolates or turn them into soap molds.
My Mother has been talking a lot about cooking lately so I think that I am going to create a personal cookbook for her of my recipes -- since she has handed down hers to me.
For dinner, I usually make and freeze Lasagna ahead of time so that come Christmas day, all I have to do is pop it into the oven to cook it. (I used to cook a big meal but since my kids are getting older, we think that it is more important to spend the time with them, than in the kitchen.)