It's time to get a handle on Christmas

Everytime I pass by the local Aldi I keep reminding myself that I need to get Christmas goodies in. I just love chocolate coated gingerbread and cinnamon biscuits, Lidl do these too, and while I get chastised for shopping there, I do believe German goodies are gorgeously authentic. This stems from when I had a German penpal. She would send the most fantastic packages over for Christmas. My mouth is watering now just thinking about those cigarlike dark chocolate marzipan confections and the warm sweet aroma of ginger and cinnamon cake like cookies. Eternal thanks, Martina Beyer!
It will also a good time to stock up on chocolate tree decorations that I pop into the pockets of our homemade advent calendar and I'll need a load as it's 2 x 25 for both my boys. You can bet your bottom dollar that the 1st of December will be on us in no time, as it was last year when I had to nip out smartish for goodies the night before and had to ferret about in the attic for the calendar itself.
Then I have to consider my class, as I'm a dinner nanny (lunchtime supervisor to give it its posh name!). I have 30 children this year, of mixed race so Haribos are a no no. Chocolate is always a good and safe bet but I'm going to give them a candy cane each. Each year I've made little Christmas boxes and stashed coins inside or used some marvellous gold bags that I bought cheaply from an amazing shop in Manchester that sells shop fixtures and fitments. If I have the time, theres a cute idea on Martha Stewarts website, http://www.marthastewart.com/ where you can fashion from a few scraps of card, a reindeers head and fit it on the cane. But only if I have time . . .