American food and family smells

I put in an order today to Skyco which is the expat grocery website I use for a taste of home. This is what I ordered today:

Farley's Candy Corn 12oz £ 1.58
Kraft Jet Puffed Mini White Marshmallows 10.5oz £ 1.59
Peppermint Candy Canes (Red & White) 1 oz £ 2.40
Lifesavers Butter Rum Roll 1.14oz £ 0.81
Lifesavers Wint O Green .84oz £ 0.81
Nabisco Teddy Grahams Cinnamon 10oz £ 3.56
Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Original 170g £ 1.50
General Foods Instant Coffee French Vanilla 226g £ 5.39
Betty Crocker Supermoist Cinnamon Swirl Mix 608g £ 2.56
Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cake Mix 410g £ 2.57
Betty Crocker Pound Cake Mix 454g £ 2.57
Liptons Onion Soup Mix 2pk £ 1.86
Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper Beef Pasta

I got a few things for Halloween and Thanksgiving (the British marshmallows just don't work with yams for some reason, too runny), a few things for Christmas and some treats. I came very close to buying a box of regular Cheerios but at almost $14 I just couldn't justify it. We do get the multi-grain Cheerios here and that will have to do.

As I was going through the groceries I started thinking about the smell of Christmas - cinnamon, pine, cold air and coal fires. And that got me thinking about a study that was recently done on what most people think their parents smell like. They were joking about it on a TV show the other night and I notice that Elizabeth has a link to an article about the study on her blog. The results were surprising only in that they were so stereotypical. Moms smell like laundry detergent and dads smell like motor oil, apparently. Not really how I remember my parents though.

When I think of my Mom I think of cinnamon toast, Dippity Do (though I don't know that Mom ever used it), and two perfumes - Emeraude by Coty and Jontue by Revlon. When I was older it was Sebastian Shaper hairspray and face powder. Smells associated with Dad are leather, gunmetal (Dad was a policeman) Certs and Marlboro cigarettes . The smell of rain and freshly cut grass always reminds me of Dad too. I wonder what the children will remember when they think of us?