Chocolate Spa Day

You read the title right. Chocolate spa day....Shannon and I treated ourselves to Chocolate body wraps today at the spa. Well, I suppose Groupon tempted us with them and we took advantage of the 50% off coupon for them. It was so worth it!!!!

We got there, had a glass of water and then got ushered into our separate rooms. The treatment started with a brown sugar body scrub, which smelled amazing. The girl gave a bit of a massage as she was exfoliating, which made it even better. Hopped into the shower in the room to rinse off the scrub while the girl went to get the chocolate mixture. It was totally organic and edible (she brought me a spoon so I could taste it!) The ingredient list is here for those of you who are as snoopy as I am.....

mmmmm......melted chocolate......

Once the chocolate was completely melted she began brushing it on. There are a few other things in it so it won't solidify the way that regular chocolate would. After completely coating me with it she put my hands into a paraffin treatment and gave me a hot stone massage. After the massage she bundled me up and then let me nap for 20 minutes. She woke me up, I showered again and then relaxed with a hot chocolate in the common room with Shannon. So amazing! My skin feels so good (and I still smell like chocolate....)

Not me, the spa didn't allow photos.....but that is what the brush looked like......

The only thing that I didn't love about it was the draping practices. The last (and only) body wrap I have ever had was in Greece. The spa that we went to there was very European in their standpoint on nudity. You are paying them to do a skin treatment, so let them treat all of your skin. No draping, no cover up, no shame. There were locker rooms that you went into, changed into a robe and then walked out to the common room. The girl comes to get you, brings you into the room and tells you to get onto the table. While talking to her you remove the robe and walk over and climb on. She has seen 100 other pairs of breasts that morning, mine don't phase her and she starts the treatment (While I panic slightly because I promised my uncomfortable-in-a-robe-in-public husband that they would drape him....) It wasn't uncomfortable when she applied the mud mask on every inch of me- that's what I was paying her for. 

Today's girl was so worried about towel placement that she came across as nervous to see too much. How did the cultures get so different? Why are we so concerned about showing a bit of skin at the spa? What is the point of a skin treatment that skips your torso? That's a big chunk of your body to miss!

We are trained that nudity is vulgar and bad, but I think that it just ruins our body images from the get go. When I was a girl guide leader my girls wouldn't change in the same tent as each other. They would file in, one by one and change into their pj's and then, when they were all changed they would all go inside. When we were in Greece there were kids their age running around the beach naked, playing in the sand and tossing footballs around. They are comfortable in their skin there. 

Is that possible here? Is it just me that finds it goofy?? Am I just too comfortable being naked??? Am I alone in with this theory?? 

Apparently not.

Bacon Chocolate

Today is going to be point form (as I do tend to ramble more when tired!)

1. Officially ready for Christmas. All gifts are here, wrapped and under the tree. They are even mostly sorted between where we are going to open them.

2. Sushi Pie. Mikado restaurant shapes the rice into a patty, grills it so the bottom is crunchy, puts spicy mayo on top and then a layer of tuna. It is amazing! I usually vote to go there every time we are in that end of the city. I got my fix today! 

3. Monopoly is not my friend. I'm not sure why I pull it out of the cupboard when there are so many other games in there that I don't suck at! We are even a part of the Edmonton Board Game League, but still, I lose every time. I suppose this time it was for a good cause, Shannon had the photos posted to Twitter and Facebook before I even noticed her doing them! She is used to losing at it all the time, so it made her day to beat me!

4. Geography also not my strong suit! The edition of Monopoly that I have is the world tour one, and we spent a few minutes googling the names of the cities so we knew where they were in the world. Interesting and sad all at the same time.....but really, who out there knew that Gdynia is in Poland?

5. Baby time! Not for me, but one of the bloggers that I read every day just posted the good news! Head over to B is for to see all the happy details!

6. Bacon chocolate.....really does exist! We picked up a few bars today (one for Jon's stocking and one for us both to try ahead of time!) It is surprisingly good, even in my books. I am not a huge bacon fan. Every few months is enough for me. Jon could eat it every day....for every meal and be happy! We picked up our bars at Kerstin's Chocolates, and were treated to tea and hot chocolate while we shopped. They make a bunch of chocolate on site, but also order in some special brands that aren't available anywhere else. The Bacon Chocolate is made by a brand called Zotter. The description for the chocolate one is: Bacon cracklings roasted in a crispy fashion and then caramelised develop nutty flavours. Hazelnut nougat competes for this nutty taste. Refined with cinnamon and coated in noble bitter chocolate. Yum! They also make one called Cheese-Walnut-Grapes that caught my eye. It's description is: Austrian mountain cheese, walnuts, grapes and a touch of balsamic apple vinegar, altogether dipped in fine bitter chocolate. We bought some homemade Nutella for my stocking. I am intrigued. I am allergic to some food dyes and normal Nutella is icky to me, it just tastes like the offending dye. These girls make it from scratch with real hazelnuts (one of my favourite things ever) and fresh cocoa beans. I will let you know the verdict!

What do you think, should I try the Cheese one?