My Capital Plate

The Christmas Countdown so far…

1. How to plan a perfect Christmas Menu
2. How to be a stress-free host
3. It’s  a wrap

What a weekend! It started and ended well, although there was a glitch in the middle. But I’ll get to that later… Yesterday, with 7 days to go until Christmas, Mr BBB and  I hit the shops to purchase all the non-perishable food items. We arrived around lunchtime, which turned out to be a perfect time to shop. The crowds had died down and there were no queues at the checkout. Gotta be happy about that! After unpacking all our Christmas goodies, I decided to finish setting up my favourite kitchen drawer. My spice drawer! Now complete with labels and….most importantly….spices!!! I have no doubt this drawer will get quite a workout!   Unfortunately this morning my plans for a busy day were thwarted when I woke up feeling ill. And not just slightly ill, but “spend the morning throwing up and having cold sweats” ill 🙁 I don’t know whether I ate something that didn’t agree with me, or whether I picked up a nasty bug, but my morning was spent generally feeling sorry for myself lying on the bathroom floor.  After lunch I started to feel a bit better, and even managed to keep some lunch down. So, rather than waste the day, I decided to continue with our Christmas preparations. Particularly given that today’s task was a relaxing crafty one! In keeping with this year’s homemade theme, I wanted to make Christmas bon bons instead of purchasing them. Last week I made a trip to the craft store and picked up coloured paper, ribbon and bon bon snaps.  I chose green/pink/red striped paper – for something a little different to the traditional red/green/gold! Then, yesterday during our grocery shop, I picked up chocolates to put inside the bon bons, and printed off some jokes. After all, a good bon bon must have a ‘groan-worthy’ joke 😉 Today it was a matter of assembling the bon bons. I started by cutting a roll of cardboard ( from a finished Christmas paper roll) into smaller lengths… Then threaded a snap through each roll, held in place with a little sticky tape. Next, each roll was wrapped in a sheet of the coloured paper. One end was then fastened with ribbon… The bon bons were filled… And finished by fastening the other end with ribbon. Repeated until you have a basketful of pretty bon bons. I had some coloured paper leftover, so decided to also make some matching menus! Compared with the bon bons, which were a little fiddly, the menus were super easy to make. I just printed off the menus, and stuck each one to a slightly larger piece of the coloured paper. All together now. What about you? Have you ever made your own bon bons? Happy Baking 🙂