Rex thinks he’s Santa!
ONE MONTH UNTIL CHRISTMAS EVE YOU GUYS!!! November has been simultaneously been flying and crawling by. Time lost all meaning during the pandemic, and I still find myself confused by the calendar. One moment I will be thinking It’s November 24 already! Next week is December! and the next I will find myself in the garden centre, looking at the sign that says December 10 Christmas Market and wondering Is that today? No, it’s not December yet.
One month! I feel very festive. We are putting up the tree and indoor decorations, the outdoor ones are slowly making their way up, and I’ve started baking all the minty chocolatey things.
That’s right, it’s Mint Chocolate Season, Baby! And it’s also time for Nicole’s Favourite Things!
There’s A Little Kalette Shady In All Of Us
Guess who’s back? Back again? Kalettes are back! Tell a friend. Kalettes make it into my Favourite Things every year because they deserve it. These delicious little crosses between kale and Brussels sprouts are Limited Time Only – they are available at Costco from about November through January, so I enjoy them as much as possible in the season.
The best way to eat them, in my opinion, is to toss them with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with balsamic, and then roast them for about 30 minutes. Divine! Last weekend I got a little carried away and made two bags, and ended up eating some the next day at lunch and let me tell you, they were SO good. This is very strong praise coming from me, knowing how I feel about leftovers.
Boom! It’s A Ticket To Flavour Town
Another Guess Who’s Back Seasonal Appearance! It’s no secret that I love popcorn, and the festive Boom Chicka Pops are…kind of back? I happened on them at London Drugs a few weeks ago, but according to a friend (HI JULIE) they are currently nowhere to be found. Did I get the last ones? I swear I’m not hoarding! I did buy a couple of bags of each kind – in a normal consumption way, not a weird hoarding way – which should be enough to get me through the holiday season.
Lube Up
As I was preparing for Tiny Secret Festive Season by purchasing Festive Hand Soaps from Bath and Body Works, I realized that I could buy body lotions in those same festive scents. This, my friends, was a revelation. I have mentioned before that one of my pre-shower rituals is looking at my various bottles of body lotion and then choosing the scent of the day, a scent that will somehow reflect my daily activities, brighten my day, and say something about the day of the week. You may be thinking that is a tall order for a fragrance, but you would be wrong.
In any case, I bought these lotions to celebrate both Tiny Secret Festive Season and also Full On Festive Season – although, frankly, these will last into the New Year – and it’s so much fun lubing up in the morning. Yes, I said lubing up, what of it.
Like A One-Winged Dove
I like to use body wash to shave with, as opposed to a shaving cream, and Costco had a three-pack of Dove body wash on sale. It’s always a risk to buy any beauty item for the first time at Costco, because if I don’t like it, I have SO MUCH of it to use up. I was fairly confident with a Dove product though – I am a purchaser of their bar soap and the guys all use the shampoo – and wow, am I glad I bought it. This is probably the creamiest, thickest, most moisturizing body wash I have ever tried. But what propels it into Favourite Things Category is the scent.
It’s so hard to describe. Back in the early 80s, before scented candles were ubiquitous and there were SNL sketches about the Yankee Candle that goes on and on, my grandma had a candle in a pretty tin canister. Let us go back in time, when there weren’t a million items in every house and each item was carefully displayed and cared for. When I was little, and we were visiting at Christmastime, I would pop the lid off and just sniff the candle, which I don’t remember being burned; I suppose it was decorative, and probably was a gift. It had such a pretty, sweet scent, and this body wash smells exactly the same. It took me a while to pinpoint why I loved the body wash scent so much; it really takes me back. It’s a floral-ish, vanilla-ish, sweet-ish scent.
Peas in a Pod
I am a big listener of podcasts, and I was horrified to read that with the advent of more and more celebrity podcasts, the smaller, independent ones are losing audiences and advertising. Listen, I enjoy the occasional Literally! by Rob Lowe or Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, but for the most part, my favourite pods are the ones that are small and independent. Remember in the blogging world when, for a few years, most blogs went into Big Blogger or Sponsored Post world, and the small blogs were considered “dead?” Let’s not let that happen to podcasts. I mean, now our blogging community shows that we are firmly Not Dead, but also, I would like for the small pods to keep making their episodes, and to that end I will tell you my current favourites. Sharing is supposedly the best way to support a podcast, and so here goes:
Were You Raised By Wolves? This is a podcast about modern etiquette, and before you frown and say “modern etiquette, what,” just know that this is an absolute delight to listen to. The hosts are so much fun and they go through different etiquette problems and questions all over the world.
Forever 35. Their tagline is “a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves,” and the hosts always say that they are not experts, they are just two friends who like to talk a lot about serums. It’s like it was designed for me and me alone. You know I love taking care of myself and also serums. I love the hosts, I love their guests, I love their topics, I just love this whole pod.
Everything Is Fine. Thanks to Ally (HI ALLY) for alerting me to this podcast, where two women talk about everything from their hair to their careers to sex injuries. I was excited to learn that one of the hosts was a staff writer for Sassy, which was THE magazine of my youth. Remember Sassy? It was the only magazine that treated teen girls like actual intelligent beings, in my mind.
Nobody Panic. Is there anything more fun than two British women giving advice on how to go to the hairdresser or how to drink more water? This is just a lot of fun; advice on how to be an adult. I do not think a 47-year-old Canadian mom of teens is their demographic, but nonetheless, I love it.
The Friendship Paradox. Did you know my blog friend Stephany (HI STEPHANY) has a podcast? SHE DOES! Go check it out, because her Season Two, all about how two friends with very different personality types navigate parties and gatherings, is so enjoyable. Also, it’s so fun to know a person via their writing, and then hear their actual voice!
Gnomes, Tunics, and Eating Clowns For Breakfast
Over dinner the other night, we were talking about how Rex has gotten many nicknames from us already, and the guys pointed out that I frequently call him Baby. My older son said As we get older, I feel like you are going to get more and more into Rex. And gnomes. He’s not wrong. People, I had an image of my adult sons coming home to visit, and their father mouthing HELP ME as he was surrounded by gnomes; perhaps I’d be bustling around with a gnome hat for both him and Rex. All of this is to say that I felt SEEN by this post about Gnomevember, by MG Doodle (HI MG!). Who knew Gnomevember was a thing? To be honest, I think every month is Gnomevember in my heart.
As I have mentioned many times, the older I get the more interested I am in long, flowing tops, and so I felt this McSweeney’s post so very much. When you’re a woman over 40, a tunic wears you.
I love learning about nuance and sayings from other languages, as well as thinking about things that are part of our own lexicon. San (HI SAN) wrote about German idioms and I read them aloud to my husband, as we laughed hysterically. I was actually crying from laughing so hard. I think I will be using the Did You Have Clowns For Breakfast until the end of time.
Next week is December, one month until Christmas…so much to feel festive about! What are you loving this month? Tell me everything. xo
“Das ist nicht dein Bier” is our house’s favorite line from San’s list. And ooh I’m looking for a new podcast and I’m a fan of Stephany’s blog so I’m off to download The Friendship Paradox right now!
You guys, it makes me so incredibly giddy that you’re adding German idioms to your vocabulary – haha 🙂
Oh, that’s such a good one too!
You know I’m intrigued by a Vanilla Bean Noel scented lotion. On principle, of course. I like Dove body wash, too. I’m glad you’re grooving on Everything is Fine. I like Literally with Rob Lowe. Did I ever tell you I saw him in person in an airport and he smiled while tipping his ball cap at me? SWOON, baby. He is HANDSOME.
WHAT NO WHAT NO YOU DIDN’T TELL MEEEEEEE. Oh Ally. I am vicariously thrilled!!!
I have put kalettes on the grocery list and Dove body wash on the Target list.
Today is U.S. Thanksgiving, and after that I feel like I can switch from Tiny Secret Festive Season to FULL-ON BLATANT CHRISTMAS, so I am pretty excited.
I love the idea of Merry Seasonal Lotions. I wear unscented lotion, but that is because I wear perfume pretty much every day (with much the same expectations as you with your lotion selection) and perfume doesn’t like the competition. But I have SEVERAL winter/Christmas perfumes (pretty much all variations on the Pine/Mistletoe theme) I am excited to start using!
Yes, you understand me completely! Scents that suit the day, mood, and activity!
I am LOVING Eufy and – spoiler alert – Eufy just became a big brother. Yup, we are now proud owners of TWO robovacs. How did this happen? I blame you but in a “Nicole, you changed my life by recommending this product” sort of way. So a good blame. I spend a disproportionate amount of time these days thinking about what a good job Eufy is doing, taking Eufy on walks to various bedrooms. It’s practically a pet.
I cannot believe it is one month until Christmas Eve – AKA my favourite day of the entire year.
I went from having no Christmas shopping done to being…almost ready?! To be fair, I don’t have a lot of people to buy for and I have some “old faithful” gift ideas that I use over and over…but it feels…good. I think it’s easier to buy for the kids as they get older. Fewer little knickknacks and more big (also read: more expensive) things they very clearly want or need.
I HAVE NEVER BEEN PROUDER THAN I AM AT THIS MOMENT! I am so excited for you and your growing Eufy family! It makes a difference to have them on different levels of the house. I love that you talk to it and take them on walks. I do the same! Did you ever see Parks and Rec, the episode where they had DJ Roomba? I want to do that.
Oh, I will have to try the Dove body wash. I like Dove bar soap but I remember buying the shampoo at Costco and the scent was bit too strong for me and I gave it away; I don’t know if I tried the body wash or if I was too chicken to try it with the shampoo experience. I have a favorite scent (perfume and body oil) and I have the body wash, too, so I use unscented soaps. This scent makes me happy — it must have something in it that turns my brain’s “happy” on but I don’t need to use the body wash daily because it’s pretty pricy — so I may try the Dove body wash. I read the reviews on Amazon and people say the scent is light and clean and many talk about how moisturizing it is — so I’m gonna give it a try! Thanks!
What am I loving this month? I’m enjoying the cooler weather so I/we can walk the dog in the middle of the day and not be so hot and sweaty. I’m loving the good feelings that Thanksgiving and Christmas bring out in people — seems more are willing/able to make room for gratitude and love in their lives.
It’s so moisturizing! I used to use Olay for the simple reason that I could buy it in giant packs at Costco. But I don’t think I can go back! It’s just so rich and creamy and the scent is just wonderful.
I’m not feeling festive, exactly, but festive-adjacent? At least with the work I’ve done decrapifying I don’t feel dread at the idea of trying to pull out the decorations and get ready to decorate.
I have been going nuts on the kalettes also. The first time we had leftovers Matt put them in the fridge and I reheated them and they tasted weird. Now I just leave them out and eat them cold the next day and they’re still good. I love them.
Maybe I should bake something. We have snow, and I’m thinking I might get an early start on my Christmas cards rather than waiting and then panicking. Although is panicking just part of the tradition?
Oh I bet with reheating they would get weird and soggy. I thought they stayed so nice and crisp cold – I actually might have liked them even better that way! WHO AM I AND WHAT HAVE I BECOME?
Well the stuff going on with Lad has me more unsettled than festive, but I am hopeful that Coach and I are on the same page now and that we can make progress.
I listen to my rosary podcast, but otherwise I’ve never listened to a podcast. I appreciate the suggestions. I remember Ally mentioning one, and I’m glad you shared the name of it. I think that one sounds great, so I’ll have to check it out.
I’m excited that basketball season is underway. My college kids are home briefly, but they come back in a few weeks for Christmas which is nice. Also, a little over than 2 months and then Reg can drive again. Fingers crossed.
Fingers crossed indeed!
I love those podcasts, they are both soothing and entertaining, if that makes sense.
Why is it that celebrities can’t stick to one thing that they’re good at these days, but have to do EVERYTHING??? The can’t be just actors, no! They also have to be singers, and dancers, and authors, and podcast hosts, and … and… and. Grrrrr. It bothers me! Let some other people have some “little” fame, too.
Oh, Kalettes sounds like something I’d enjoy VERY MUCH. I need to go to Costco soon and hope they’ll have it!
Haha. I am so excited to hear you had so much fun with the idioms (honestly, idioms in any language are the best!!)…
I think you would love kalettes! They are just so delicious.
Those cookies look amazing.
I’ve had kalettes but I can’t remember if they taste more like kale or more like Brussels sprouts. I like both, but North likes kale marginally better than Brussels sprouts, so it’s relevant for menu planning.
I feel like they are more Brussels sprouts than kale; more “Brussels sprouts with kale leaves attached” in my mind.
Thank you for starting your post with Rex. I noticed it AND appreciated it.
Indie podcasts I recommend to you:
Pop Mom! in which a culture critic and his mom talk about things. I feel like there isn’t a lot of media representation of healthy relationships between parents and their adult children and I just love the two hosts.
Underunderstood in which four people get together and try to solve pop culture mysteries that can’t be figured out with a simple Google search.
Well, Engie, I don’t disappoint my readers! I thought you might like that one!
I listened to one episode of Pop Mom but it was so long ago – maybe you even recommended it to me! I’ll give it another try! Both of those sound fun.
I think of you every time I see that popcorn!
Your cookies look delicious!
Wendi Aarons is a mutual friend. I should put the book on my TBR list. I’ve seen that in multiple feeds this week, so I believe the Universe is trying to tell me something.
Happy one month to Christmas! Xoxo
Wow, you know her? She’s so funny! I should read the whole book as well!
Hi Nicole, So sweet of you to mention my blog and the gnome obsession!
Thank you for the list of podcasts. I love podcasts so much and I love supporting the smaller ones.
And I think it’s perfectly normal to have very high expectations from a fragrance!!
We are together in our love of gnomes! And podcasts!
BTW, I’m drooling for your cookies! I’d love to have the recipe, if you don’t mind! Thanks!
I second this.
Okay! It’s super easy and I’ll type it out for you!
I’d never heard of kalettes and they sound like something I’d love–I shall be on the lookout! Santa Rex, your array of lotions, and the cookies are propelling me into full-on festive mode!!
I think you would absolutely love them, Maya!
Dove is my favorite body wash. I also use it to both wash and shave, it’s so thick and luxurious. I have never heard of kalettes either..I am a fan of roasted Brussels sprouts, not a big fan of kale. If I see them here in California, I am going to give them a try, now that I know how to prepare them!
I don’t know if they will be available to you, but if they are, I would say give them a try! They are more Brussels sprouts than kale in my mind.
What a fun list! I have not heard of this kale brussel sprout hybrid. But I have had kale chips before so I am sure I would love the recipe you made!
I’m loving that we had a normal Thanksgiving weekend. It was very very busy and many tantrums were had, but it was nice to do the things we used to do before the pandemic – like hosting my college friends and their kids for cookie decorating. My college friends got married much earlier than me, so soon their kids will age out of this tradition, so it makes me sad to think about the 3 years we lost… One kid who is 16 aged out this year, but I’m thinking/hoping the girls will be into it for several more years! My boys had the best time and loved all the attention from the big kids. And the cookies were so yummy!
That sounds like so much fun, Lisa! Bittersweet, maybe, having lost three years to Covid.
AH! This Wednesday I’m going to Bath and Body Works to get my scented hand soaps- I can’t wait. I’m definitely on full-on festive mode right now. Bring on the chocolate and peppermint! And Kalettes. Ha ha, those don’t seem to go together. I’ve never seen those- are they only at Costco? I’ll look around, because I’m sure I would love them.
Yes, I call my cats baby also. Well, what are we supposed to do as the kids get older???? We have to have something!
I have only seen kalettes at Costco, and I’m not sure if you can get them in Florida, but if you can, I think you’d enjoy them!
Jenny, may I suggest GNOMES?
REX!!
I’ve yet to find a Kalette in the wild, but I am on the hunt!
Did you say LUBE UP? Like many times? 😜 Coach uses that very Dove body wash too.
Thank you for the Podcast ideas; I’ve been wanting MORE.
Your boys are so darn funny, but as they say: The gnome doesn’t fall far from the gnome tree!
LUBE UP BABY!
NICOLE! Thank you so much for the podcast shout-out. 🙂 And I’ve added a few of the podcasts you’ve mentioned to my queue to listen to soon. I am always on the hunt for new podcasts, especially non-celebrity ones!
Girl, same! Love your pod!
I don’t think kalettes are available near me… *heavy sigh*
I am envious – as I love brussels sprouts and tolerate kale (I just typed sage for some reason…?) so would probably be one who appreciates them.
Also? You would DIE if you had to eat with me. If you define “leftovers” as “additional veggies from the ones I cooked yesterday”, well, that’s pretty much what I eat all week! I pre-cook veggies then construct my lunches and dinners around a variety of them. Lunch = tofu, dinner = random protein of some sort, + veggies + random carbish thing, and I’m set! 🙂
I also love the Dove body wash – this horrible hotel I stayed in last month had it as their soap, rather randomly. I hated everything else about that hotel, but the Dove shampoo, conditioner, and body wash were highlights. 🙂
I don’t mind the occasional veggie leftover but…nope. Not a leftovers fan!