Memorable Christmas Gifts

We were thrilled to get pierogis for Christmas. It was a great gift from our kids. Four dozen different kinds that were delightfully tasty - just in time for Christmas Eve. We weren’t able to visit family this year - again - and we were happy to learn that our daughter in law and grandson were going to stop by our house on their way home from Baltimore back to central Virginia. We would all go for dinner at the old fashion supper club vibe in our neighborhood. We were surprised to get even more surprise gifts and it was fun to open them before all we went to dinner. My husband got a book about J Edgar Hoover, and a tea pot with two different kinds of tea leaves. The poetry written on the side of the tea leaf boxes was rather interesting. Every time we visit the kids we always go to the Waffle House - as a joke - but it’s certainly become a tradition of sorts. We got two Waffle House coffee mugs. We could use some new coffee mugs! I got a lovely colorful box filled with L’Occitane creams, shower gels and soaps. It smells so nice and the creams really work well on dry skin in the winter. We also got a bottle of wine from a winery in Virginia. It was fun to open the presents since we missed the opportunity to do it on Christmas Eve at their house. After that we drove over for dinner and had a wonderful time together. We are also expecting our grandson to visit again this week with his girlfriend who we will be meeting for the first time. Our lives have been quite sheltered over the last few years. We are hoping things can become more normal in 2023. We need to make up for lost time. 

L’Occitane en Provence Skin Cream

I got a lovely box of L’Occitane cream products for Christmas. There was a big jar of body cream; a tube of foot cream; a tube of hand cream; and two soaps for the bath. I usually use whatever cream or lotion I find in the grocery store - Vaseline Intensive Care or Aveeno. Lately I have been keeping all the sample size Neutrogena products from the hotels we stay at and put them in the guest basket in the monk’s room for visitors. Especially during the dry winter months my skin gets quite flakey and dry. Since I got the L’Occitane products I thought I would give them a try. So I’ve been using the body lotion on my legs after a shower. And every evening I was using the foot cream - it’s already gone. I did notice a big difference on my heels. They were smooth and silky - very rare this time of year. I’ve replaced it with neutrogena lotion since my supply ran out and it feels like water compared to the whipped body and thick foot creams. So I am now a believer in the L’Occitane brand. My husband thinks all of this is nonsense and he is probably right. But it really is a thicker and creamier product than the bottled lotions. And it smells really nice too. So I ordered replacements on Amazon and am looking forward to using the product again. It’s probably all in my head, but that’s how it all works.