One of the easiest ways to escape from a hectic day is to slip into a bath and plan to spend about an hour entertaining your senses.  It’s a nice habit to acquire. One of my favorites is a lavender bath—I turn to this one when I need to relax after a long day.  I like the water hot, and infused with lavender “ice cream.”

In that water, I am no longer in control—my senses are.  The smell fills up the air, and my body is enveloped in warmth as I slip into the tub. The color relaxes my eyes, and all I can hear is the swish of the water.  I can’t recall the day when the relief of a good bath is at hand.

For my face, I use something special—European egg white soap.  I cover my face with suds and let it dry—and forget botox because my skin is always perfect when I use this soap. You can find it on Amazon.

I have a million other bathing solutions, but this one is best for relaxing and forgetting the day—and getting to sleep is a breeze.  I think I will go take one now.

I was noticing last night that there are so many holiday movies that just get a little too close to the heart.  And because they are movies that come around and around, they remind me of my parents in some way—well that’s good, and a little bad, because I am not shopping for them this year.

So here is my choice for the top 5 movies that are just fun, for the holidays:

1.  25th Anniversary of Saturday Night Live

2.  Meet the Fockers

3. 40 year old Virgin

4.  Some Like it Hot

5.  A Fish called Wanda

The best thing one can do when feeling worried, or sad…is laugh.  There is some chemical release in the brain that takes away the blues.  It’s a fact.  Rent these 5 movies, and you might forget your worries for a moment.

The first time I went for a site inspection at the Stanford Hospital, I sat in my car to catch my courage—bad memories of hospitals.  Yet, today I look forward to my first trunk show, tomorrow, at Stanford Hospital (Nov. 19th—Atrium level, 10-5pm).  I have a few new things to show for the holidays.

Like these MoMA borderless floating frames.  They are substantial pieces of art that hold 2 photos (one on each side) that seem to float in the air.  One could even use smaller photos and get more in—which makes these frames especially nice in a hospital, or office.

When I was in Paris, I noticed flower shops displayed flowers in plastic bags filled with water—that way you didn’t need a vase for your hotel room.  When I found these plastic vases that simply fill up with water, I thought they would be flimsy, but no…they are pretty strong…and look fantastic—even nicer than the Paris version because they are reusable. I need to admit, here and now, I MUST have flowers in my room when I travel.  It’s something I picked up a long time ago…flowers just promise a nicer day.

So if you are in the neighborhood of the Atrium at Stanford Hospital, come and visit me tomorrow!  I will have free treats and very pretty Wellness Gifts all around me.

This will be my second holiday season without my parents, and already I am feeling the need to get through the next few weeks quickly—sad too because this used to be my favorite time of year.  Here a are a few tips of what helped me most during the first year of grieving:

1. Do something different, break tradition.  You don’t need to get out the decorations this year if it seems too hard.  I did something simple…I just put a string of orange lights on my mantle.  I found the glow of them to be especially comforting throughout the day and night.  BTW, the color orange has been proven to actually make you feel better.

2.  Do something nice for yourself every single day. Go to the grocery store and buy 5 things:  apple cider, cinnamon sticks, star anis, and 2 oranges.  16 cups juice, 10 2″ sticks of cinnamon, 8 star anis, and grate the rind of 2 oranges.  Heat for 10 minutes. Sip on this for a while.  The house smells good, and it feels good to have something warm on your throat.

3.  Wear warm socks all the time.  It helps.

4.  Don’t watch the news.

5.  Try and sleep. Consider a broken heart to be a little like major surgery, it takes a long time to heal.

I’ll give you more ideas later…this is enough for now.  Remember, forgive yourself for everything…being late, sleeping in, not washing your hair (it does help though), eating too much bread.  Sugar actually causes depression, so watch it…

Just a day at a time.

Yes, it’s TRUE.  I am offering FREE shipping in the SF Bay Area for the month of November.  Why?  Because this is where CAREBOX™ was born, and SF is my favorite city outside Paris—and because November is also my Dad’s birthday month.  We all need to celebrate the small things in life.

So, here’s how you do it:

1.  Go to www.carebox.com

2.  Select your gift

3. On the check out page, calculate the shipping by entering your zip code (center column)

4. Go to the left column, and put in code NOVSF.

5.  Click on apply discount.

6.  Go back to center column and check on free shipping  (the choice with the $0)

7.  Voila!

Thank you for your support of CAREBOX™ and I hope you enjoy free shipping this month.

Christine

A stay in the hospital is boring, lonely and depressing (except of you are having a baby)! TV is not all that satisfying, and magazines and books are only good for a couple hours at a time.  There are long periods of waiting for something or somebody, punctuated with shorts spurts of uncomfortable activity—the best idea is to get out as quick as you can before getting more sick.

After spending amazing amounts of time in hospitals with both parents, I created CAREBOX™ filled with gifts for people who are in need, but what if you have limited funds, or need something quick.  Consider these ideas:

1. An eye mask and/or ear plugs. Don’t even imagine a hospital is quiet at night.  Neither one of my parents slept much at all, and they always complained of people coming in and out of their rooms.

2.  Cool socks.  Yeah, they give you pastel socks, but they make you feel worse.  I like the ones with the rubber things on the bottom so there is no crashing on the way to the bathroom.

3. Good shampoo, familiar toothpaste, nice cream, a good file, or a brush.  Seems so obvious, and it’s a little thing, but Wow!  It makes an amazing difference!  The hospital has the worst stuff anywhere.

4.  Better things to eat and drink.  My mom loved her favorite milk shakes, coffee and green tea.  My dad loved jelly beans.  Snacks are cheerful, and comforting when you have a few of them around.

5.  Bring a blanket from home, it’s amazing how chilly it gets, and there is something so good about familiar smells.

Of course it goes without saying that company really helps, but when somebody is really sick, they can only take so much, so keep visits short and sweet.

And I always say, wrapping something makes a difference.

I hope nobody you know, or even you, need to go to the hospital, but if it happens, I hope these ideas can help with a smile.

My Cute Dad

November is a special month because my dad was born on November 10, and because it’s lung cancer month, and I lost my dad to small cell lung cancer.

I was in Great Falls, MT last weekend for another funeral, and had a chance to drive around and say hello to the place where my dad and mom were born—and where I spent so much of my childhood.  WOW.  As I am older now and looking back, I find it striking how brave my parents really were.  They came from poor families and were able to leave home at a very early age to find success and adventure in a world very far away from MT.

In fact, my dad managed to travel around the world many times during his life.  When so many of his peers stayed in his small town, my dad managed to climb to the top of Uluru in the middle of Australia, scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef, and trec across Europe more than once.  I loved this about him.  His curiosity about other nations and people.  He was much braver than me.

We were in Sydney, Australia once over Father’s Day, and it took everything I had just to keep up with him.  One day in particular still brings a laugh.  We had a map, but he insisted we not refer to it as we began an early morning walk across the city.  Every time I wanted to look at the map, he made fun of me, and asked about my sense of adventure.  Well, we walked forever and ever and never seemed to get anywhere until finally we had this “moment” when I asked if he had a plan about where were going, and he said yes.  To the water.  I asked if he was referring to any landmarks if we weren’t going to use a map, and he said yes.  The tower.  I looked at the tower and knew in a flash we were never going to get to the water because the tower was round and were just going round and round in a circle!

Well, I had one of the best laughs I can remember..and he turned a thousand shades of red, giggled, and we finally pulled out the map!  That was the thing about my dad though…we still had an amazing adventure together, filled with great conversation, even as we walked in circles.  He could make anything fun.