Holidays Coming Early

Well the holidays certainly are coming early around here. First let me state that I've long been a fan of President's Choice products, going back to the first bottles of "Memories of..." series and frozen appetizers for those days when I'm just a party of one and crave something festive to munch on.

Naturally I said yes when I was contacted by them wondering if I would like to receive a "Holiday Package" no strings attached, but if I'd like to mention ....you get the idea. And yesterday I got the buzz from the Purolator delivery guy that there was a package for me. So I walked down the three flights and 48 steps to the front door to let him in and saw the giant box you see at the top of the post (It literally comes up mid thigh). "Don't worry", he said "it's not that heavy"....I guess that's true if you lift weights every day. In fact, it was so heavy I felt compelled to stand on my scale with it...50 pound....yes that five - zero - that's 22.67 kg, in case you're interested.
And being me, which is to say having absolutely no ability to wait and savour things...I opened the box to discover 25 individually gift wrapped parcels and a letter telling me to open one a day until Christmas. Since it was December 2nd, I didn't feel guilty opening the first - a 2L bottle of mulled apple soda that was quite tasty and a silver cake server.

....but as you can see....I couldn't stop myself. And by the way...the truffles dusted in cocoa are fantastic and the Cranberry & Orange sauce made the perfect glaze for my roasted salmon...more about that later.

There really are too many things to list here, but I will mention the Mocktail Martini a non-alcoholic version for your tea-totalling guests...think super sophisticated Shirley Temples

...everything from appetizers to desserts. Marinated Gigantic Beans (that's what the jar label says and believe me they are the size of large olives) for savory snacks and Chocolate covered Gingerbreadh Bites for the sweet tooth (that and the dark chocolate orange thins and several kinds of cookies and biscuits).

I guess the exercise of carrying the fifty pound box up three flights of stairs will help balance my calorie intake.

What kind of holiday treats to you keep on hand for those spontaneous parties?