It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas

My first job after my maternity leave was a part-time gig at The Body Shop in West Edmonton Mall. It was crazy and frantic and set me up for a little "career" with TBS that spanned across 3 provinces.

That first Christmas, though, was probably the craziest. Our store was tiny and packed ALL THE TIME. Once you were assigned to a section, you stayed right there. Two steps to the left, two steps to the right, and maybe one step forward, if you were lucky. Even turning around was sometimes impossible.

It was there that I got hooked on the Satsuma fragrance. At the time, you could only get Satsuma soap, bubble bath, and perfume oil, which we would add to the unscented massage oil* and lotion. (The line has since been expanded to include all sorts of stuff, including the TBS favourite, Body Butter.)

Keeping with my holiday tradition, I treated myself to a BIG bottle of the Satsuma shower gel the other day. Now I finally feel like it's Christmas. Without having to endlessly stack bars of glycerin soap and deal with the crazed shoppers, of course.

*Insider tip: have the unscented massage oil scented with 1/2 Satsuma and 1/2 Vanilla perfume oil. It smells exactly like a Creamsicle!

12 days of Awesome

One of the Mascot's favourite Christmas traditions has always been the advent calendar, but the older he gets, the less exciting it is to open the little cardboard door to find a crappy piece of "chocolaty candy". Last year, we splurged on the Kinder calendar, but to his surprise, only one of the 24 days contained an actual Kinder Surprise Egg. The remaining 23 days were just tiny Kinder chocolates.

This year, I went all-out on a homemade countdown calendar. From today until the 24th, the kid will get to open a little bag containing a sweet surprise; everything from Clodhoppers to Lik-m-Aid to Teddy Grahams.

But, don't tell him, k? It is supposed to be a surprise, after all..

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Stress? Anxiety?? Panic???

Well, almost. As long as I keep the little post-it note over the date at the bottom of my screen, I can continue to live in blissful ignorance. How many shopping days until Christmas? I don't know!

So far I have purchased exactly 2 1/2 gifts and made the Christmas cards. Thankfully, I have a very manageable list, so I should be able to get the cards in the mail by Monday and finish up gift shopping by the end of next week. 

I also have a couple of custom orders to finish up and a "12 Days of Awesome" advent calendar to figure out. 

And some baking/candy-making. 

And decorating.