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I was browsing around the grocery store looking for holiday baking goodies when i went down the seasonal isle and found some holiday teas were now in stock. If you have read my blog before you know how much of a fan I am of teas. So I was curious, I mean, I like holiday flavoured latte's why not tea?

They have 5 new flavours!

Nutcracker Sweet, Sugar Plum Spice, Sugar Cookie Sleigh ride, Gingerbread Spice and Candy Cane Lane.

The one I chose to buy was the Candy Cane Lane and here's what's in it:

Ingredients: Peppermint leaves, decaffeinated green tea, orange peel, natural vanilla and mint flavors with other natural flavors, cinnamon, milk thistle, blackberry leaves, roasted carob, roasted chicory and vanilla bean.

It's naturally caffeine free and contains no gluten. I wasn't aware that some tea's had gluten in them to begin with. To me this tea tastes like peppermint with a hint of vanilla, its very good.

To see if you can get these products near you click here! The neat thing about this site is that you can see what tea's you already like and they'll recommend similar teas that you may also enjoy!

I think I will go make myself a second cup while I finish my blasted Christmas cards, the next kind I think I may buy will be the sugar cookie sleigh ride.

So in the mean time enjoy a cup of tea!

A dear friend of mine posted this on a site I created. Thank you Sonya, this is a wonderful tribute to mothers everywhere. I feel sometimes that I'm being taken for granted, sometimes stepped on and often invisible. No one sees how much time Stay at Home Mom's spend interacting with our children, how many diapers we change, and how much work goes into the handmade food I give him.  Very few people know how many times we play peek-a-boo, watch Elmo on sesame street, or how many times I help him stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down--Let alone be: pooed on, peed on, thrown up on, scratched, pinched, kicked and punched.  Some times my selfishness gets the best of me and I find myself longing for my old life just for a moment. But when I look down and see this smile, I know that it is worth it: THE INVISIBLE MOTHER It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?' Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.' I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone! One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England .. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: 'To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.' In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: no one can say who built the great cathedrals We have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything. A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.' And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.' I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.' At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree. When I really think about it, I don't want my child to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'You're gonna love it there.' As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women. Great Job, MOM!