A grazing platter gift
A group gift can be so much easier than organising multiple individual gifts, especially if you don’t know the recipients that well. And it’s probably cheaper, too!
Today’s post is by Kate Moar, telling us about her lovely gift idea for a group (teachers, child carers, and so on).
A gift idea
Like most of us, I am very rushed and busy at the moment so I wanted to find a gift to give the office staff and support teachers at my boys’ school that was as simple as possible.
My sister had the idea of a grazing dessert platter in Christmassy colours, and I loved it..
Putting it together
It is done on a large wooden cheese board – I got one from Kmart for $15. I shopped at various supermarkets and ended up spending $71 – this filled two cheese boards with all the items so it worked out to be $35.50 per platter.
The platter is made from
- Lindt balls
- mint slice
- cherry ripe slice
- little pecan tarts
- green licorice straps
- red frogs
- strawberry and cream lollies
- strawberries
- grapes
- cherries
- Christmas tree biscuits (I found this in Aldi or you could make your own!)
- fruit cake
- Maltesers
- gingerbread stars
- Darrel lea mint balls
- Tim Tam bites
- Ferrero Rochers
- Raffaellos
It looked really good.
It took less than 10 mins to put together and the teachers LOVED it!!!! So I achieved both goals of showing my appreciation for the teachers and not taking a lot of my time!
I took the other platter to a party last night and it was a hit too! I loved that I didn’t have to rush home and cook before going out, and it didn’t need refrigerating at the party either.
The board from the party came home, but I am happy to have made the board part of the gift so the staff room now has a chopping board or serving board the staff can use. A gift for immediate pleasure and longer term use as well!
I will definitely be doing them again next year!
Day sixteen in the Christmas countdown!
After a busy day on the Santa train, the kids were tired but happy to open the 16th flap of their advent calendars…
Ornament calendar
Back to fitting pieces together, for day sixteen the press out advent calendar provided a blue gift box above an image of Merrit the Elf carrying many gifts to Santa’s sleigh.
Lego City
A simple little cupcake trolley was behind flap 16 in the Lego City Advent Calendar.
Lego Friends
Hanging on the tree, this Lego Friends ornament is quiet cute, but it was one of the hardest Lego constructions we’ve come across. It looked like one circular piece was attached to multiple hinges and the other circular piece was floating above it – there was no obvious way to attach it. Eventually, we realised that the white space it was floating above was actually a white Lego cylinder! From that point, assembling the cupcake was easy!
Christmas book
There was an old bloke who swallowed a present will amuse us tonight as we continue our “Christmas book a night” advent activity!
Tinkles just hanging around…
Tinkles was hanging in a ceiling air vent this morning!
Christmas advent day fifteen
Second last Saturday before Christmas and there is Christmas everywhere, including day fifteen of advent calendars!
Ornament calendar
In today’s calendar we still pressed out two pieces but strangely they do not interconnect – we have two decorations! It sort of makes sense as not many people go around with one ice skate, but still felt a little strange.
Lego City
The anticipated Christmas tree popped out from under flap fifteen.
Lego Friends
We are debating what the Friends ornament from day fifteen actually is… To me, it looks like a platter or board for holding cupcakes to hand around at a Christmas party, but my children think it is a present. Once hanging, it does really look like a present, but why are there raised bits (that look like Lego cupcakes!) randomly sticking out from it?
Christmas book
Happy Christmas Spot is the cheery little book we will read tonight. Have you read this one with your kids this Christmas?
Myer window – Alice in Wonderland
This year’s Myer windows show the story of Alice in Wonderland. They are based on Rebecca Dautreme’s illustrations from her 2015 book (published to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carrol’s story originally being published in 1865). This is the second time Alice has featured in the Melbourne windows at Christmas.
Alice in Wonderland captivating children
2018 Myer windows
The story starts with Alice trying food and drink that makes her grow and shrink. So far, there is no sign of the white rabbit nor falling down the hole.
Alice is then shown as particularly large again as she appears trapped inside a house that is now too small for her.
A purple caterpillar then appears in a field of mushrooms.
I love the ants crawling around under the mushrooms, too…
Following windows include the croquet game with the Queen of Hearts and her cards, and the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. I liked the table under a hills hoist and the details of food and tea bags in this scene. But was a bit thrown by a large white cat – the original Sir John Tenniel (illustrator) and Edward Dalziel (engraver) artwork had a stripy cat and Alice describes him as having lovely green eyes, and most of us are used to images from movies and books where he is purple or orange. White and fluffy just isn’t what to comes mind for the Cheshire cat!
The croquet window was fun with moving hedgehogs and such tall, expressive flamingos!
And Alice’s final adventure in the windows was visiting the drawing room with an array of characters.
Have you see Alice in the Myer windows?
It is exciting and fun to visit the Myer windows and my kids and I enjoyed seeing Alice. I have to admit that basing it on Dautreme’s illustrations made it less special for me as it moves away from my imagined Alice in a blue dress and an orange Cheshire cat. I have heard others say the same thing. But the creation of the windows, the movement of Alice and others, and the attention to detail in the settings still made this a wonderful outing and a beautiful display.
Tinkles having a tinkle on the piano!
Maybe she was inspired by last night’s Lego piano from the Lego Friends advent calendar, but we found Tinkles sitting on the piano this morning. Just as well it is electric and unplugged or we may have been woken during the night with her tinkling with the keys!
I wonder if we should get some Christmas sheet music for Tinkles (or my daughter anyway!) so we can have some live carols and Christmas songs....
Day fourteen in our Christmas countdown
How is your advent countdown coming along? We’re up to day fourteen and the collection of things created is growing, so let’s see what is behind the latest flaps…
Ornament calendar
Again, we’re back to the northern winter concept of Christmas as we pressed out a snowflake tonight. I quite like the snowflake – for such a simple ornament, it has depth and a charm to it.
Lego City
Here are some presents to wonder about what could be inside – they are interesting shapes rather than just the box shapes we’ve seen in Lego calendars before (like the lidded box in 2017 and solid gifts in 2015)
Lego Friends
I really like the cute little piano we got in the Friends calendar tonight, and my daughter is happy as she has a piano (ok, she rarely plays it and she gave up lessons, but it’s there!)
Christmas book
Little Miss Christmas is our book for tonight, which will be fun as I haven’t read that one in quite some time.
Catching the Christmas train!
Last weekend, we saw Santa on the Christmas train on the Mornington Railway.
The Mornington Railway is run by volunteers and runs a number of Santa trains in December so it seemed like a fun activity.
It was the first time the kids had been in a train with compartments (like they do in Harry Potter!), so they loved that and were very excited at the idea of Santa coming into our compartment and speaking with just us.
Unfortunately, he didn’t actually spend much time in the compartment with us – just gave the kids a candy cane each – but at least he was there and spoke to them.
We caught the train from Moorooduc to Mornington and back. As part of the Christmas experience, a Christmas tree was at the station with boxes of baubles that children were welcome to hang on the tree. It was blank when we first saw it but was soon covered with baubles!
The kids loved watching the train from the footbridge (27.1m long, 6.5m high, originally built in 1900 and located in North Fitzroy), looking at the old station items and posting letters to Santa. The kids were interested in seeing ‘history trains’ and noted the difference (other than size!) between this train and the Lego bullet train the Lego City advent calendars produced a few days earlier.
A jumping castle beside the station was also a big hit – given we had it to ourselves, it was pretty special!
We followed the trip up with a picnic in a nearby train-themed playground, so had a lovely day.
Have you caught the Mornington Christmas train before?
TV time for Tinkles the Elf last night…
Even Tinkles seems to say Thank Goodness Its Friday as she sits on the couch to relax with some TV – I wonder if she sneaked in some Christmas movies while we were asleep?
Tinkles the relaxed Christmas Elf with a TV remote
Has your Christmas elf had any TV time this Christmas, or maybe enjoyed some other relaxation?
2018 advent calendar day thirteen
It’s not Friday so the 13th must be a lucky day after all! We all feel pretty lucky to have our advent calendars to open and Christmas Day to anticipate, anyway.
Enjoy day thirteen in our countdown!
Ornament calendar
I like tonight’s hidden picture of an elf painting a bauble for someone’s tree – our press out bauble was even easier to make though!
Lego City
The Lego City advent calendar today produced a girl eating an ice-cream – something we can relate to doing at Christmas time!
Lego Friends
My daughter enjoyed putting together a simple wreath from her advent calendar tonight.
Christmas book
Heading back Down Under, our book tonight is Santa Koala… so I suspect there will be singing along with reading as we laugh at the antics of the bush animals while Santa snoozes!
Tinkles got into the chocolates!
This morning Tinkles was found inside a box of Lindt chocolates, with wrappers on the floor around her… Ok, she has good taste, but we’re not happy at giving up our Lindt balls!
She did leave us a note, saying she tried to only have one ball…
Christmas countdown day twelve
Day twelve seems it should have some significance, given the 12 days of Christmas song and traditions!
Ornament calendar
Behind tonight’s ornament, we found that Merrit has a green elf friend! The two elves are ringing the Christmas bells, and we got to make a bell to hang on the ornament tree.
Lego City
More suitable in an Aussie summer than a northern winter, today my son made an ice-cream stand from behind flap 14. It does look a little strange near the woman with a snow shovel, but it is a cute little stand and has tempted us all to grab an ice-cream…
Lego Friends
This is another of those advent calendar items you just have to ask why? Tonight, my daughter found the pieces to make a large, blue trophy – although my husband was reminded of the Star of David and a Hanukkah candelabra. I’m wondering it this is again a representation of one of the Friends, but surely we could have a symbol of her sport instead of the winning cup?
Anyway, it is colourful and took a bit more skill to construct so my daughter is happily adding this to her collection of decorations.
Christmas book
Tonight we are going to enjoy reading Santa’s busy night and look for the details in the illustrations (given the plot is a little simple for us non-toddlers!)
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