12th day of Christmas: twelve drummers drumming

It's the twelfth day of Christmas! Whoo hoo!

I have to tell you, I had no desire to do this today. None. Nada. Zip. The only idea I had ahead of time was to make chicken drumettes, but that hadn't happened, so.... I had nothing. I stared at an array of empty bento boxes in front of me willing for inspiration to strike. From the living room my bossy three-year-old was yelling "hurry up with my lunch, mama! I'm waiting! Don't forget the applesauce!". The pressure!!

This is what I ended up with.

This twelfth day of Christmas bento lunch consists of:
- peanut butter and jelly sandwich on multigrain bread
- clementine and strawberries
- applesauce
- Wheat Thins Crunch Sticks (for drumsticks!)

The 12 drummers are a motley crew of friendly animal picks. Their instruments are oyster cracker drums.
A couple pieces of grassy barran separate the sandwich from the fruit in the back.

It's packed in an EasyLunchboxes container. :)

Wahooo! I'm so glad to have this behind me. This bento series was fun, but I'm glad it's done! 

This is part 12 of a 12 part bento series on the Twelve Days of Christmas!! :)
See also:
11th day of Christmas: eleven Pipers piping
10th day of Christmas: ten lords a leaping
9th day of Christmas: nine ladies dancing
8th day of Christmas: eight maids a milking
7th day of Christmas: seven swans a swimming
6th day of Christmas: six geese a laying
5th day of Christmas: five golden rings
4th day of Christmas: four calling birds
3rd day of Christmas: three french hens
2nd day of Christmas: two turtle doves
1st day of Christmas: a partridge in a pear tree

Supplies used to make this lunch:

InLinkz.com

11th day of Christmas: eleven Pipers piping

It was this eleventh day of Christmas, with eleven pipers piping, that had me the most stumped. I was really drawing a blank on what to do with it until Margot, a member of the Another Lunch Facebook Page, joked a few days ago that her Piper was a "small, blond, bobbed-haired princess". Tee hee! Hello, inspiration! :)
That made me think of some other cute little Pipers I know. Piper was even on the very short list of girl names I had in mind when I was pregnant with my fourth baby!

So with that in mind, today's bento is full of cute little Pipers, including one blond bobbed-haired one (wearing a princess tiara no less!). :)



In this 11th day of Christmas bento lunch:
- turkey sandwich topped with 9 smiling Pipers
- veggie straws
- strawberries with 2 more Pipers
- a few chocolate cookies piped with icing ;-)

When it came to the "piping" part of the bento my mind kept turning to those iconic Hostess cupcakes and the curly-cue icing. I didn't want to go buy cupcakes for the bento, and while I've seen some amazing recipes and tutorials online for making homemade versions, they are way more labor intensive than I desired. I rummaged up a little pack of chocolate covered cookies and used some leftover cookie icing to pipe on some swirls. :) Yum.

The various Pipers in the box are decorated with bows and flowers of fruit leather and cheddar cheese. Princess Piper in the center sports a bobbed-hair do of cheddar cheese and her tiara is made using just the top piece of the Princess Lunch Punch sandwich cutter. If the crown fits...wear it! :)

This piperific lunch is packed in an EasyLunchboxes container. :)

This is part 11 of a 12 part bento series on the Twelve Days of Christmas! :)
See also:
10th day of Christmas: ten lords a leaping
9th day of Christmas: nine ladies dancing
8th day of Christmas: eight maids a milking
7th day of Christmas: seven swans a swimming
6th day of Christmas: six geese a laying
5th day of Christmas: five golden rings
4th day of Christmas: four calling birds
3rd day of Christmas: three french hens
2nd day of Christmas: two turtle doves
1st day of Christmas: a partridge in a pear tree

10th day of Christmas: ten lords a leaping

Leaping lizards frog lords! I had to take some creative license privileges to pull off ten lords a leaping. These are an amphibian variety of lords.



The contents of this bento box lunch:
- peanut butter & jelly sandwich
- cucumbers
- strawberries
- grapes
- dry roasted edamame
- clementine orange
- gummy frogs

The sandwich was cut with The Lunch Punch frog cutter and decorated with a fruit leather crown and icing eyes. It was the Lunch Punch that inspired me to use frogs to pull off the leaping lords. Gotta love Lunch Punch! :)

Two of the cucumber chunks were cut using a frog-face-shaped mini cutter and also decked out with mini icing eyes. Aren't they cute?


Two sideways grapes wearing crowns and buggy icing eyes become two more little leaping lords. I love these little guys!


I can't tell you how many times I counted the frogs going into this box to make sure I wasn't leaving any out. Over and over again I counted. And somehow I still managed to mess it up.


If you count the frog shaped mini cup that holds the edamame there are actually eleven frogs in this bento box. Doh! (major forehead-slap moment) I can't believe it. Pass me the dunce cap.

This is part 10 of a 12 part bento series on the Twelve Days of Christmas! :)
See also:
9th day of Christmas: nine ladies dancing8th day of Christmas: eight maids a milking7th day of Christmas: seven swans a swimming6th day of Christmas: six geese a laying5th day of Christmas: five golden rings4th day of Christmas: four calling birds3rd day of Christmas: three french hens2nd day of Christmas: two turtle doves
1st day of Christmas: a partridge in a pear tree

9th day of Christmas: nine ladies dancing

This Twelve Days of Christmas lunch, featuring nine ladies dancing, is brought to you by the can-can. It doesn't say what dance they are dancing. ;-)


Packed in a PlanetBox:
- a turkey sandwich topped with dancing shoes
- baby carrots and grapes
- Pink Lady apple chunks
- multigrain crackers topped with dancing ladies of provolone cheese
- in the tiny treat section are some Runts candies

To make all the ladies I used a mini angel-shaped cookie cutter and then trimmed off most of the wings to make arms. The arms are not very graceful, but they'll do. :) They are colored with food-safe markers. At first I just drew little faces on them, but then realized they looked like naked ladies. I quickly sketched some dresses on them!

In reading about Twelve Days of Christmas, there is some information about how each of the gifts represents something biblical. It just so happens that the "nine ladies dancing" are supposed to symbolize the Fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galations 5:22-23)), so the little fruit-shaped Runts candy in there can have a double meaning. :)

This is part 9 of a 12 part bento series on the Twelve Days of Christmas! :)
See also:
8th day of Christmas: eight maids a milking7th day of Christmas: seven swans a swimming6th day of Christmas: six geese a laying5th day of Christmas: five golden rings4th day of Christmas: four calling birds3rd day of Christmas: three french hens2nd day of Christmas: two turtle doves
1st day of Christmas: a partridge in a pear tree 

8th day of Christmas: eight maids a milking

Cows have such a soft spot in my heart, so this was a fun bento for me to make. My great uncle, who was much like a grandfather to me (and for whom my sweet Owen shares a name), owned and operated a dairy farm his whole life. I grew up clamoring around the old antiquated milking equipment in his old abandoned milk barn, stacking dusty discarded glass milk bottles, and daydreaming about the farm days of yore. :)

My bento lunch rendering for the 8th day of Christmas, eight maids a milking:


This bento holds:
- triple decker mini cow face sandwich
- pretzel squares
- clementine orange
- three quesadillas, cut with a cow shaped cookie cutter
- purple grapes
- mozzarella cheese stick
- a milk pail full of Milkduds :)

Coming up with eight maids was a wee bit tricky. Four of the milkmaids are represented by girly-face picks (found here).



The remaining four milkmaids are cheese heads. :) Their faces are drawn with food-safe markers and adorned with pretty bow picks.


This is my favorite 12 Days of Christmas bento so far. It was super tricky to get everything arranged, so it's sweet relief to be happy with how it turned out! I'm thinking I really have my work cut out for me for the next four days! What have I gotten myself into?! :)

This is part 8 of a 12 part bento series on the Twelve Days of Christmas! :)
See also:
7th day of Christmas: seven swans a swimming
6th day of Christmas: six geese a laying
5th day of Christmas: five golden rings
4th day of Christmas: four calling birds
3rd day of Christmas: three french hens
2nd day of Christmas: two turtle doves
1st day of Christmas: a partridge in a pear tree