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I ventured out into the Boxing Week fray with my 2-year-old, to check out the deals and see if my local DAVIDsTEA still had anything left of their 50% off sale. My store was pretty scant, with all the good stuff like the Christmas crackers and ornaments gone, so I picked up a washi paper covered tin, some of those $1 tea samples (now 50 cents!) and 10g of Fantasy Island, just because.

I drink probably 2-4 cups of tea a day, starting with a straight black in the morning and working my way down the caffeine scale as the day wears on (this pregnancy has made me highly sensitive to caffeine, whereas my husband can drink coffee after 9pm and still sleep like a baby, go figure!). Pregnancy brain makes me forget things, though, like if I’ve already brewed a cup of tea or not. On occasion my husband has come home from work to find a half-drank cup on the counter and another on the window seat. I blame baby boy… he’s making me forget more than tea!

I digress. I brewed myself up a cuppa this, then actually sat down and drank most of it! Only to have my little girl descend upon me, decide that Fantasy Island is now her new favourite tea, and DRINK THE REST when I wasn’t looking! Little rascal. She then had the audacity to ask for more! So, I resteeped the leaves and shared that—very flavourful—cup with her too.

Looks like this tea (with the addition of a little milk + sugar) has the toddler stamp of approval, and it doesn’t get much better than that!

It’s been a year since I first tried this tea and I hadn’t really planned on giving it another chance, but it was free, so I can’t complain.

It’s kind of ridiculous to try and Christmas shop on the second Saturday before the big day, but I needed to pick up a couple of the “mug tails” mugs as Christmas gifts. It’s a good thing I did it today too since the ones I picked up were the last of their “species” in stock, a fox and a bear. I had to wait in line for a bit while they fetched the boxes (the only ones left were the display ones) but my reward was a piping hot cuppa Bubbly.

Now, I’ve never tasted Champagne and due to stomach issues and/or pregnancy I haven’t had any type of wine—sparkling or otherwise—in ages, so my perceptions of how alcohol should taste are wildly off. This, though, I would gladly drink as a safe alternative.

Packing boxes while 23-months-pregnant is… interesting, to say the least. BUT my 2-year-old is actually napping for a change so I had best make use of this precious toddler-free time!

You never really realise how much STUFF you have until you’re attempting to cram it all into boxes. With a husband who majored in Political Science that means we have so many books. Heavy books. Wordy books. Textbooks. Books about war and dictators and genocide. Lovely. I sold most of my old textbooks back in university to get back some of the money… my husband? Kept. Them. All.

All this packing calls for a London Fog break, stat! A dreamy, creamy, bergamot scented break… perfect.

LOTS of changes around here lately:

1) WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!! Simultaneously scary AND exciting at the same time. One the one hand we will be SO POOR because our savings have gone towards the down payment, lawyer fees, land titles, taxes, and then the mortgage twice a month. On the other hand we won’t be renting anymore! This makes me incredibly happy! If there’s a problem it’s up to us… and yeah we’ll have to foot the bill, BUT no more waiting on landlords who don’t do anything anyways and make us resort to solving the problems of mice infestation, exploding stoves, or unshoveled walkways ourselves.

2) The terrible twos are upon us. My precious, well-behaved 23-month-old has just this week decided that that was all an elaborate charade and that she just wants to scream and whine for whatever she wants now. Who is this child? Cuz she sure ain’t mine…

3) Baby boy is quite a busy little bee in there. I’m officially 23 weeks along and the little gaffer must be a break-dancer because I can feel him twirling and kicking like there’s no tomorrow.

4) My doctor also happens to be pregnant too, which is weird because she was also pregnant when I was pregnant with my first! This means that she’ll be going on maternity leave at the end of January and I’ll have to go to another doctor for the rest of my prenatal care. Sigh.

5) Which actually segues to this tea, I promise. I haven’t been the best preggers around… I don’t take my prenatal vitamins (I was taking them before I got pregnant, but then the nausea hit and I could barely keep water down, let alone hard-to-digest horse pills), I definitely don’t drink enough water, I was losing weight for a while and have just started gaining some of it back, etc. So, my Doctor was all, “I know you have trouble with the pills and keeping food down, but COULD YOU PLEASE DRINK MORE FLUIDS!” So, that’s where this tea comes in because I figured I might as well enjoy the fluids I drink, right? Thus I’ve been steeping + icing a bunch of my more summery teas in an attempt to motivate myself to get more fluids coursing through my system. This one hits the spot: fruity, light, flavourful, and delicious. Bottoms up, Dr. H!

This tea… it just feels right.

I’ve actually been scheming to blend these two teas for a while now, but for some reason the Toasted Marshmallow triggered something in my pregnant nose/taste-buds that made me abandon it after the first cup. However, when mixed with Cookie Dough both teas compliment each other perfectly! Like drinking liquid s’mores or macadamia nut cookies. And made as a latte? I’ve died and gone to tea heaven…

Sidenote: My 23-month-old likes this latte just as much as I do, good thing I made double so we can share.

Ever since the pregnancy nausea/vomiting ceased I’m finding I can finally tolerate rooibos again. Prefer this much more to Salted Caramel since when latte-d up it tastes exactly like those caramel candies that you can buy in bulk from most stores. Yum yum!