A pre-Christmas Dinner

There’s few things I love more than having time out with some of my girl friends and it’s always around mid December that we have a good catch at our annual Girls Christmas Dinner. And last year (gosh that still feels weird to say given it’s just days into 2018!), I hosted it at my house.

It was all organised fairly last minute this year, but boy was it a fun night. Full of laughter (lots of laughter!), good food, pretty table setting, good music and a fair amount of prosecco (and eggnog this time!).

I threw together this table setting and handmade the bon bons, which you can see here, and everyone bought a share plate – which Beth got us into doing. I’m telling you is the absolute key to these rare nights being so relaxing and fun because it’s not stressful or too much work for host or guests.

Cottonwood and Co - pre-Christmas Girls Dinner
Cottonwood and Co - pre-Christmas Girls Dinner
Cottonwood and Co - pre-Christmas Girls Dinner
Cottonwood and Co - Christmas Platter

Annie brought this beautiful and perfectly festive platter, above. So much deliciousness on one plate and so pretty. Brooke brought these yummy mexican canapes, but I didn’t get a photo (sorry Brooke!) as I was too busy drinking! Oops.

Cottonwood and Co - pre-Christmas Girls Dinner
Cottonwood and Co - Christmas Flower Arrangement
Cottonwood and Co - BabyMac Pea Mint Feta Salad

Beth’s to-die-for mint, pea and fetta salad. This is ALL kinds of wonderful and delicious! My husband and I are now obsessed with this one. So good for summer, so fresh and so easy to put together. You can get the recipe from her website.

Cottonwood and Co - duck fat roast potatoes

Lucy’s incredible crispy duck fat potatoes. Oh my lord, Heston eat your heart out. These were the bomb!!

Cottonwood and Co - spiced nut glazed christmas ham

And my piece-de-resistance, my spicy nut glazed ham! It is SO good and if you don’t like things spicy you can either half the spices or just leave them out. But I love a touch of spice and I’m all about adding turmeric to my food these days for health reasons.

Cottonwood and Co - pre-Christmas Girls Dinner
Cottonwood and Co - pre-Christmas Girls Dinner

A little Kris Kringle gift opening. Everyone loved their gifts – I think everyone shopped at Nest & Burrow so we all scored very well! That’s one of my favourite stores for gifts if you’re in the Southern Highlands, by the way.

Cottonwood and Co - pre-Christmas Girls Dinner

Cheers to Christmas, girl time, and Shannan’s incredible Thermomix eggnog! Oh dear me it was like a Christmas milkshake. With alcohol! Soooo yummy. Too yummy!!

Truly it’s nights like this that I feel so blessed and grateful for the friends I have here. Truly solid, supportive, do-anything-for-you and fun friendships.

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and New Years? Did you go away? Are you excited about 2018?! I sure am!

N xo

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Close
Cottonwood and Co © Copyright 2023. All rights reserved.
Close