Fave Friday

It is with find nostalgia that I remember the advent calendars of my youth. I am old enough to remember the ones that were just a picture behind a window. I was excited every day to find out what was going to be there. When I got one with glitter on it - even better!

At some point in my childhood chocolate advent calendars became A Thing. Now everybody thinks of advent calendars as made of chocolate and, more than any other Christmas tradition, the loss of this makes me really quite sad. There's surely enough chocolate around at Christmas without having to scoff a small piece every day leading up to it.

I mourn the loss of my tradition. But then some genius came up with the idea of the adult, luxury advent calendar, and I am on board with it - not really because it is a countdown to the festive fun, but because it is a treat every day. You might remember that a few years ago I splurged some of my marking money on a gin version; I've still got some of the miniatures, though, because I only got about halfway through before I started to worry what drinking gin every day was doing to my face (it made me very rosy).

This week, I found an extra payment from the exam board that I'd forgotten was coming, so I spent it on this.

The Clarins advent calendar. Not a great picture, but I am trying to avoid the website too much because there's a list and picture of the contents (??!!) and I want it to be a surprise. It wasn't eye-watering, like the one I lust over from Liberty most years, but this is a big step away from the picture only ones of my youth, even when they had glitter.

I'm looking forward to treating myself daily: something that I find very important in the dog days of term, when everything is so busy and sleep is in short supply. Also, I ordered it online and it came with seven free samples, a cosmetics purse, and some sort of loyalty points which mean that the next tube of cleanser I buy will cost me nothing. So basically, I saved money by buying this.