More Birds

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three French hens.

I'm behind in posting your alternative to the traditional twelve days of Christmas items. It was a busy weekend. But, here we are with day number three. Again, the sender is giving birds. I don't know the history of the traditional carol. There must have been something important about birds when the carol was written, that caused them to be featured so prominently. Perhaps the giving of birds was a way to show wealth. It would still be today because three French hens will set you back $150. Given on day three and continued for the next nine days, you'll need to come up with a total of 30 French hens which will set you back a total of $1,500.00. We'll just stick them in the back yard with the 12 partridges and the 24 turtle doves.

For an alternative, I went with the "French" idea. There are so many things one could give that represent France. I chose lavender. Lavender is well known as having a soothing ability. If you indulge in any aromatherapy, lavender is high on the list for its calming properties. Whether it's English or French lavender, in a month of hectic-ness, who wouldn't want something that's calming.

Let's start with some bath salts. You need to provide the time for your true love to indulge in a long bath, but these salts, made in the Provence region of France will be a good first step in de-stressing during this crazy holiday time. This jar of salts is $16.70 before tax.

Next, you need something to go with that bath. How about a hand-milled bar of lavender-scented soap? The soap is advertised as being 100% natural. I've often found that the scent from a soap is much more intense than from a shower gel or shampoo. It seems the crafting of the soap intensifies the scent. The nice thing about a bar of lavender-scented soap, you can use it in the shower, not just in the bath. This bar sells for $4.70 before tax.

Finally, let's give some lavender to last the day. Let's go with a bottle of Eau de Toilette. This is not cologne or perfume. In the intensity of scents, Eau de Toilette is the lightest with cologne in the middle and perfume being the most intense. Think about that when you go to give your true love a bottle of something. If they like the kind of fragrance that is there and then gone, consider Eau de Toilette. It provides just a hint of scent.

I used to have a bottle of English lavender cologne. It had a wonderful scent. I still have bottles of lavender air freshener. I will spray that in my closet or aim them at the sheets after changing the bedding. I think tucking myself into lavender-scented fresh sheets promotes a deep sleep. You can use an Eau de Toilette on your sheets too because it's much lighter in composition than a cologne or perfume. This bottle costs $24.30 before tax.

Now, you're going to need 10 days worth of items. You can find more lavender (and a lot more other scents) at this web site, Buy Provence. I suggest 3 bottles of bath salts, 3 bottles of Eau de Toilette and 4 bars of soap. That comes to a total of $141.80 before taxes. With taxes and shipping, you might be close to $200 which is about the same cost as one day's worth of French hens.

If given the choice between birds or lavender, I would rather have the lavender. The neighbors won't complain about that scent.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb