Good morning everyone!!!
With my birthday now 9 days behind us, I wanted to share with you what I received for my birthday, focusing in on a few beauty treats.
Beauty Treats: 
I was fortunate to receive from my mother something I had been eyeing for quite some time: Esteé Lauder’s Colour Portfolio Palette. This set includes 30 Pure Colour Eyeshadows, two Pure Colour Glosses, and a Pure Colour Intense Kajal Eyeliner pencil. I absolutely love the range of colours in this portfolio, and each palette section actually pops out. Plus, there is a built-in mirror, making this portfolio perfect to take on a trip with all your eyeshadows in one place, complete with an applicator brush. 
When my mother purchased this for me, apparently she did so on the one day that Hudson’s Bay was giving away a free full size of Estée Lauder’s Re-Nutriv Ultimate Lift Age-Correcting Cream, a $100 value. I love when things like that happen. 
And finally, I was able to pick up my birthday gift from Sephora: a set of two mini NARS Velvet Matte and Satin Lip Pencils in the shades Cruella and Rikugien. The former is a classic red shade, while the latter is a more muted pink shade. I just tried out Rikugien this morning, and it goes on so smoothly!!! Now to test its lasting power. 
And now for the presents from my grandparents. For as long as I can remember, every birthday my grandmother gives me a 200 sheet package of ruled paper, a $50 bill, and a pair of gloves.
Paper: The most recent package of paper I have received to date was purchased back in the 90s. How do I know, you ask??? Well, each package has a page of coupons on the front, or a promotion. On one package in particular, the coupon for purchasing three Crispy Crunch chocolate bars and getting the fourth one free expired in 1992 . . . meaning the paper was purchased at least the year before. Then another package had a promotion for getting a Batman comic book for $1.29. That promotion ended back in the late 80s. But I love getting this paper every year. As a student, I find I am always running out of paper in binders, and it is so nice to always have a stash of more. Plus, since the paper is older, it has a slight yellow hue to it, which I love. So much better than the stark white of brand new paper with the overly defined red margin line. Ha, my paper is always so different that, back in high school, all my teachers knew which work was mine without looking at the name because the paper stood out in their marking pile. Ah, youth.
$50: My grandmother claims every year that she doesn’t know what to get people, so including some money in a card is her way of making sure she doesn’t give people anything they don’t want or wouldn’t use. I think she expects me to buy myself a little present with it, but I always end up depositing it into my savings account. Got to pay for school somehow.
The pair of gloves: Now this one I find so adorable. Each year, my grandmother goes on a weekend getaway with her childhood friend. They stay in a hotel, go out for dinner, and, of course, hit up the dollar store in the big shopping mall on the drive home. This is where her hoard of gloves comes from and, every year, I am given a pair of gloves. At this point, I have at least 19 pairs, but I think I have even more because sometimes I get a pair for Christmas too. You would think this would be more pairs of gloves than anyone could ever need, but they are actually really handy (ha, so punny). They are super compact, so I keep a pair in the car, in my backpack, in jacket pockets, in purses, and anywhere else I can think of so that, come winter, my hands will never be cold.
Finally, for my birthday I asked for a goat. Not one for myself, but one that would be donated to an organization like Free the Children or OxFam, who would give the goat to a family in a developing country. It is amazing to see how a single goat can change the economic status of a family, and how much it means to them. And it is always important to give to others.
I had such a wonderful birthday celebration with my family, and I am so thankful for these thoughtful presents.
Literary and Lovely 