Big Thanks to Michele and the B.C. Lung Association

I do not eat sugar, I do not eat wheat. One of my many weaknesses to break these trends in my eating patterns (it is not a weight loss diet thing, therefore I hate calling it a diet because of the stigma attached with that word) is Cinnabon. I have resisted that sweet cinnamon smell that haunts the malls of North America every time since I put on my wheat/sugar free pants, but when it is delivered to our door I cannot resist. Indeed life does need icing.

A big THANK YOU to Michele from the B.C. Lung Association for delivering an amazing Monday treat (on the most depressing day of the year), this is the type of Holiday treat everyone can use! Seriously, it was the highlight of our day here at Mountain FM. This is the first Holiday season here at Mountain FM so this is the first time I have experienced this miraculous annual delivery of this sweet surprise, Michele says she does it every year. This has taught me a valuable lesson; all annual future ‘holiday’ treat deliveries I do will happen on the first real back to work Monday of the New Year.

Again a HUGE thank you to the B.C. Lung Association for their annual treat, for more information about the B.C. Lung Association and their work like the Christmas Seal campaign you can check them out here http://www.bc.lung.ca/campaigns_and_events/public_service.html.

Now, it is Tuesday and there still are Cinnabons in the fridge… it is 5am… and there is still extra cream cheese icing to top them left in the fridge too. Fat Kid Kate would have just eaten the tube of icing and been content, but she has learned her lesson the hard way about doing that… but, that’s another (pretty scarring) story for another day. 

Silver City Nites with Andrea from the City of Trail

Friday night in downtown Trail is where you need to be for the city of Trail's 'Silver City Nites' celebration! It is going to be a great time with Santa's Candy Parade and more great events all evening for your family. Head to Trail Friday night to see Mountain FM's Tom the Intern on location with hot chocolate! 

Click here for more information about Trail's 'Silver City Nites'. 

KMART's 'Show Your Joe' Commercial

American retailer KMART is taking some heat for their new Joe Boxer Holiday commercial.

KMART’s recent commercials have been some of my favourites. In radio school you are forced into copy-writing classes to learn the art of writing great commercials and the strategies behind good creative writing. Naturally I fell in love with KMART’s ‘Ship My Pants’ commercial (below) the first time I saw it, every time I watch it I still lose it laughing at the old man’s line, “I just shipped my bed.” Seriously, it is up there with the panda cheese commercials (also below).

This holiday season KMART has released a new commercial for Joe Boxer boxers with a string of hunky men performing ‘jingle bells’ like never before and I love it! Seriously, I think it is enough to warrant a KMART comeback for all us Canadians who will be forced to sit around waiting for this gem of an American commercial to come on American channels feeds. Not because it is sexy, actually the more I think about it the less attractive I find all the studs in the video, but because it is funny. Yes, I understand why some people are offended by video and even why people think it is in bad taste but it beats the hell out of all those Cellino & Barnes and University of Phoenix ads we are forced to watch all the time through American cable channels.

What do you think? Good fun? Should Vicky’s ‘Angels’ be the only holiday show offs on tv?

I am amazed it has taken this long for this to happen...

KMART’s ‘Show Your Joe’ commercial

KMART’s ‘Ship My Pants’ commercial…

The top ‘Panda Cheese’ commercials…

UPDATED: Reddit Secret Santa 2013

Just a little update about a blog I posted earlier this week, come to think of it I may have posted it on the weekend. Reddit has surpassed its goal of having 65,000 people take part in this year’s Secret Santa. I can say I am proudly part of a group of nearly 71,000 people taking part this year! That’s 108% (and counting) of the people needed to meet the goal.

Here is my original post: 

Christmas is creeping closer everyday and I have started to get just a little anxious about waking up December 25^th alone for the first time. My boyfriend will be home in Calgary, my family is back in Nova Scotia and I have to work on Boxing Day. I’m not complaining, I am fully embracing my first Christmas working in radio and I have been prepared to work the entire Holiday Season since I joined the Mountain FM team and moved to British Columbia.

With that being said, I have been working on little bribe for myself. Making a wish list of presents I can buy and wrap for myself (lets be honest, this won’t happen), thinking of skyping in and unwrapping presents with my family in Nova Scotia (this is equally unlikely because of the four hour time difference and that I am the worst at Christmas surprises). I have also promised myself as much Chinese food (one of my favourite things) as I can handle on Christmas day, a new lonely Kate tradition.  

Today I added a plan for the day; I joined Reddit’s Holiday Secret Santa. I am really excited about this, I love Secret Santa but I always end up having to organize it and it never goes as planned. On top of being a Secret Santa to a stranger (and hopefully making their Holidays a little better) I will be receiving a gift and potentially be part of the World’s biggest Secret Santa world record. I would love to get that certificate in the mail, so you should join the efforts too! Check out to get involved, it is not too late and Reddit is getting pretty close to the target of 65,000 participants (as you can see below)!

For more info on Reddit's Secret Santa click here.

Sear's Christmas Wish Books

Today I am dedicating a blog to the magic of the Sear’s Christmas Wish Book.

Why? Well, as a child of the 90s, it was a clear indication to me Christmas was truly on the way when a Wish Book arrived at the Bruce Household. We had to have multiple copies; we fought over getting to have a turn with the treasured item. And, you better believe you would need a Christmas miracle to save you if I did not get my filthy child hands on that book before the new smell wore off. In the country there is not much else to do when you don’t have cable television to tell you want you want for Christmas, that was the sole purpose of the Sear’s Wish Book, if they didn't carry it than it did not matter.

Yes, we needed multiple copies, not only because we would fight over the book itself, we also fought over the book’s pages and ideal Christmas presents. Before the internet the easiest way to get a photo of the items you wanted for your (oh-so-advanced) Christmas list in pictures was to take it from the Wish Book, this caused endless arguments when clippings stole the heart of a page with a gift someone else wanted. So getting the Wish Book first was key, no one wanted the Brunette Barbie… or even worse the Sporty Spice doll (yes, this was in the era of Spice Girl Dolls). Having all the details was key, from the item name and color (if applicable) to the exact page and reference number; these were the things Christmas was made of.

Another reason, a little secret (that I am sure is not limited to my lovely mother, it is probably as Canadian a problem as dipping 75% of breakfast foods in maple syrup) is that my mother hoarded Wish Books when I was a kid. They were hidden amongst other normal household items like bedding etc. I think she started doing this when I was born so that someday my theoretical future children would be able to marvel in the embarrassing crap I wanted as a kid. Also, I think she may have thought a ‘Day After Tomorrow’ style weather event was on the way in the future and burning the Wish Books would help save some of our domestic library from the fire.

Anyways, the moral of this blog is:

1.       You know where to find Wish Books from the late 80s through to mid 2000s (I think she gave up on the collection).

2.       Digital editions of Wish Books may save trees but they break my heart. You can’t clip things from an iPad and if you are a child you shouldn't even have an iPad.

3.       No child will suffer from a Wish Book paper cut, which is the only positive to take from all of this.

I could rant further; I could go on about this topic for a long time and reference the many gifts that manifested from the Sears catalog pages into my parent’s living room Christmas morning… and even the horrific burning of the non-plastic parts of my Barbie dream house. But, that won’t bring the Sear’s Wish Book back its glory… the glory of the pre-internet era.

So do your kids a favour, order them a Wish Book today here:

https://secure.sears.ca/catalog-request

End rant, its quitting time.