Oh No - Christmas is Coming!

I love Christmas shopping. I know, I know, it's all crass commercialism and profiteering, but I adore the art of choosing gifts, stacking up my pretty purchases and just looking at all the nice things. Today I bought some lush glittery baubles for my sparkly gold tree - that's also great fun because they're all spangly and exciting and there's so much choice.

You see, by starting early, I get to pick all the best things; I certainly couldn't leave everything to last minute - imagine fighting through shops with all those eejits that don't bother with anything until the last week. Worse yet are the ones that just get alcohol or chocolate. That's SO boring and there's no thought goes into it. I keep a box of chocolate as an "emergency gift" for someone I've forgotten, but that's it, or maybe as stocking fillers - I love to do stockings, it's always so fun to find all the little things. Mum put a wonderful little Edward Monkton bag in mine last year and I use it nearly every day! (Thank you very much - it's very handy; I carried my baubles home in it!)

Mind you, talking of chocolate, I had a nice chat with the lady in our local Thorntons today. She was grateful for the feedback on the Vodka and Limes (AKA the washing up chocolates, ICK.) and mentioned there had, as I suspected, indeed been a few complaints about the changing of the singles bars. They've gone from a 90g straight bar, to a 50something block - and they just don't seem as satisfying. Yes, the width of them gives them a misleading look of being bigger, but there's only half the chocolate. Great for the idiots doing rush shopping for just chocolate, but pants for someone who really APPRECIATES a good sweetie.

However, I did stop and grab another of the new treats on the servery, a walnut truffle. This has a simple Forastero milk chocolate shell, with a fragment of soft, delicious walnut in, dropped on top of a simple ganache-y base. It reminds me a lot of the ganache centres to be found in the old Origins collections.

I also picked up some more salted caramels to nom on with Himself. I like its weight and density when you pick it up - that heavy, subtle slosh inside that thick dark chocolate shell makes me think of magic eight balls. The almost metallic flavour of the liquid inside makes for a delicious contrast on the bittersweet coating... Mmmmmmm.

Oh yes, and I ordered some new glasses from Specsavers, some for work and some for nice. I'm even more short sighted. Woop.