GET THEE TO A TRADER JOE'S - Important Announcement If You Like Chocolate!

Yes, Halloween was just yesterday.

Yes, Thanksgiving is still weeks away.

And yet, and YET, today I urge you to run to Trader Joe's and get an ADVENT CALENDAR!

David praying to the Valrhona gods, offering thanks for putting out the advent calendars in October.
(We found it in the Reston, VA store - a new store for us!  Details on it soon!)

Crazy early, I know, but don't blame me, I am not the one who already put Valrhona Advent Calendars on the shelves at Trader Joe's!  I didn't put 'em there, I just spotted them!  And of course, I snagged one!!!  AND SO SHOULD YOU!

You need one of these for oh so many reasons.  Let me tout just a few:

1.  Valrhona chocolate is ahhh-mazing.  Seriously delicious, very high quality chocolate.

2.  This is an advent calendar for ADULTS.  Ain't no snowmen.  Ain't no Santas.  Ain't no waxy a** chocolate!  No - each and every day of December until Christmas reveals a delectable, delicious, super good chocolate.

Here is the pretty inside.  It looks just like last year!  So lovely.

3.  It is the SAME PRICE as last year ($9.99), which is crazy cheap for all of the great chocolate you are getting.  

$9.99 in one store in 2015....

$9.99 in another store in 2015

TADA!  STILL $9.99 at the Reston, VA store in 2016!  Thanks Trader Joe's!

4.  On December 24th you get a big candy bar (see photo of inside of the calendar above - check out the 24th!)!  Not one of those little fancy squares, but a genuine full size real life chocolate bar.  (If you want to be kind, you can share it with a friend, but you don't have to.)

5.  It will help you count down the days until Christmas.  "But my family doesn't CELEBRATE Christmas!" I hear some of you saying.  To that I say, DOESN'T MATTER, you still deserve great chocolate!  Here's what you do:  set an appointment for December 25.  It can be to change the filter on your heater.  It can be to polish your shoes.  WHATEVER!!!  Then use this fancy advent calendar to count down to that appointment!  It works for stuff other than Christmas, trust me!!

Attractive photo of us from last year, opening up a day of chocolate in our jammies.
I promise, we have not opened any squares yet this year!

The reason I am posting this so early is because the stores will run out of these.  Soon.  They don't get many of them, and when they are gone, they are gone.  And you deserve one.  Heck, while you are at TJ's pick up a couple of the cheap advent calendars for your kids (I think they are a buck!).  But remember, this fancy Valrhona one is for YOU!!!

Last year this product got 5 well deserved stars (review here:  2015 Valrhona Advent Calendar Review

This year, even before opening a single little window and nibbling a chocolate, I declare it a 5 star winner again!

Price:  STILL $9.99, and well worth every penny

Rating:  STILL a shiny 5 stars

Day 329 - Valrhona Advent Calendar

This I believe*:  no matter how much you cut corners, save pennies, and sacrifice, there are some moments when you need to TREAT YOURSELF.  Those special treats are what make all of the thriftiness pay off.  I think this is one of my core values – be careful with your money and time, but once in a while, SPLURGE!!

This advent calendar is one such splurge.

Here it is folks - the Valrhona Advent Calendar 2015

Look, we do not NEED an advent calendar.  We are adults and can pretty much count days on our own without needing to open a little window.

Plus, at our house we do not even RESPECT the days as they are presented to us on any given calendar!  No lie – we have a very large pile of UNOPENED gifts that we got for each other from Christmases and birthdays past.  There they are – all wrapped up neatly with bows, and piled high, shiny, smiling at us, waiting patiently to be opened.  Some are years old!  They are like a great archeological site.  Who knows what is in them??  Certainly not us!  When we decide it is an “open a present day” (the mood strikes every once in a while!) the GIVER of the gift is normally equally as surprised as the RECEIVER, because the present has been wrapped so long no one knows what in the world is in there!  It is exciting!!

All of that is to say, even when we get to the END of this advent calendar, it will not be like the starting gun of some race that announces, “This is it!!!  It is time to begin!  OPEN…  THE…. PRESENTS!!!”.   The end of the advent calendar (for us) will be “OH look, a bigger bar of chocolate on this day!”. 

So although we did not NEED an advent calendar, we bought this one.  There was one for a fraction of the cost sitting right next to it on the Trader Joe’s shelf, but we chose this FANCY ONE.  Because we decided the splurge was worth it at that moment.

In our morning attire (and hair dos) TREATING OURSELVES by opening not one but TWO windows on our new calendar

And it was! 

“Wait…” you may be thinking.  “How do they know it was WORTH IT already?  It is not time to open the first window yet!!”.

Did you learn NOTHING by reading the paragraph above that explains that we do not really respect “correct” holiday dates at our house???  J

Plus, we HAD to try the chocolates in this calendar early if I was going to review it in time for you to rush to your local Trader Joe’s and pick one up, right???

If you think the outside is pretty, wait until you open a door and see the wrapping on a chocolate!!

The concept of this product is the same as other advent calendars – you peel open a little cardboard window everyday and reveal a treat inside.  Only, with THIS one, unlike other advent calendars, you are not greeted by a waxy piece of chocolate made in the shape of a reindeer.  No siree.

Nope.  What you find behind the little doors are lovely petite artisanal chocolate bars.  Really yummy ones.  Wrapped in pretty papers.  They are sort of like the SPA of advent calendar chocolates.  They are like taking a mini vacation to France (in your mouth!).

Look, we have only eaten two of these little chocolates, so we have only tasted two of the flavors.  They were amazingly delicious.  They were very high quality chocolate and not the crazy, wacked out flavor blends that some chocolate companies now think everyone loves.   They are rich, complex, DELICIOUS little chocolate squares.  (Spoiler alert – on the last day of this calendar you get a FULL SIZED VALHRONA CHOCOLATE BAR!!)

This product was pricey.  But we are worth it.

And so are YOU!!!!  In this season of rushing about, cooking, writing cards, baking, and buying/wrapping gifts for other people – make sure you take at least a moment to TREAT YOURSELF.  For us, these chocolates are a good way to do that.  Maybe for you it is taking time to read People magazine cover to cover.  Or getting your nails done.  Or going to a hockey game.

Whatever it is, just remember to TREAT YOURSELF.  That, to me, doesn’t by any means you have to spend  a ton of money.  “Treating myself” sometimes means getting a funky bottle of nail polish.  Or buying a cup of fresh squeezed orange juice and sitting down to savor it.  Treating yourself can be ANYTHING.  DO IT!  And when you do, if anyone says you are being selfish or extravagant, just tell ‘em I told you to do it.

Find it at your TJ's with the other holiday products.  GO TODAY - they are selling out.

If you want to get this particular advent calendar, make sure you hustle to your TJ’s today.  They miiiight already be out, but for your sake I hope not.  And if they are out of this particular advent calendar, TREAT YOURSELF to another one of the fancy holiday items there.  Go for it!  Seriously, do it.  J

Here is a link to the Valhrona website where you can see their gorgeous chocolates.  The only thing I wish it had is a SMELL functionality where it wafted the scent of chocolate through your computer speakers.  click here to see amazing chocolate

Price – an expensive $9.99

Rating – 5, rating based on taste, beauty, joy, and the ability to make us feel pampered

*- credit to NPR for the “This I Believe” concept.  If you have not listened to any “This I Belive”s, you must.  They are really powerful and will make you consider what is important to you.  This I Believe