Forget the Sugarplums. Bring on the Peppermints!

Ever since I was little I’ve always equated the arrival of Advent with the taste of peppermint. Candy canes – Mmmm! Peppermint swirls – Mmmm! Peppermint stick ice cream – Mmmm!

As an adult I added in another holiday favorite: hot chocolate with whipped cream and a shot of peppermint schnapps – Mmmm!

I’ve never been able to find organic candy canes until this year. My excitement was short-lived, however, as they’re outrageously priced when you add in the shipping. I’m not about to pay $15 for six ounces worth of candy canes!

I’ve tried different brands of organic hard candies in the past, but all of them were made with corn-based glucose, which I don’t like. Last night, however, I discovered Yummy Earth’s lollipops and hard candies, made with good old organic cane sugar.

*drool*

Flavors galore: Cherry. Root Beer. Chili. Watermelon. Pomegranate. Lime. Orange. Butterscotch. Strawberry. And many more including…

Peppermint! Wahoo! The peppermint candies aren’t shaped like candy canes, but who cares – they’re peppermint!

The price is right too — $7.99 a pound including shipping.

Heck, I even like the company’s name.

I’ll let you know how my candy tastes when my order arrives…

Mmmm – peppermint! It must be Advent!

Pearl Harbor

Image: The USS Arizona burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. 1,177 military personnel died on the Arizona; overall 2,350 individuals died at Pearl Harbor on that day, including 68 civilians, with an additional 1,178 injured.

Mr. Vice President [Henry A. Wallace], Mr. Speaker [Sam Rayburn], members of the Senate and the House of Representatives: yesterday, December 7th, 1941–a date which will live in infamy–the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

…we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces—with the unbounding determination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God.

–President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Historic words. Worth remembering.

Good Morning, Wisconsin!

This was the scene looking out of our front window yesterday morning. It might say “autumn” on the calendars, but around here winter has settled in to stay. Last year was our third snowiest here in northeast Wisconsin ever since the National Weather Service started keeping records. We had around 87 inches of snow. But, hey, records are made to be broken… we’ve already had twice as much snow this year as had fallen last year by this date.

Couldn’t we do something different this year and break the record for, say, warmest winter?

*sigh*

I’m guessing not.

This is what our back yard looks like now. That’s a lotta snow for this early in the winter. The large black and white blob in the center of the yard, btw, is a gorgeous loon windspinner that Michael gave me for my birthday this year. Besides being fun to watch, Loony is a great wind vane, moving to face into the wind with the slightest breeze.

James the Bunny (son of Stewart) has become our yard bunny for the winter. Stewart moved across the street this summer and Petunia also found new digs. James was my constant companion for the second half of the summer and early autumn, hopping about very happily when I was in the yard. He’s now become quite curious about Michael’s comings and goings between the yard and his workshop, to the point where Michael has to be careful to not step on him.

One of these days Michael will hear a soft tapping on his shop door… and when he opens it James will blithely hop in and claim a spot right in front of the heater where he can warm his toes and ears.

If he asks for a glass of carrot juice, that’s where we’re drawing the line.

Uncanny

An excerpt from a phone conversation I had tonight with my sister:

Sis: I’ve been thinking all day about that book by Walter Farley, “The Black Stallion’s Blood Bay Colt.”

*the sound of Twilight Zone music fills the airwaves*

Me: You have got to be kidding…I downloaded it at… let me see… 1:15 a.m. this morning  from Bookshare. I had this sudden urge to read it, after all these years!

*cue laughter, the kind you only hear exchanged between siblings who don’t care if their shrieks of laughter sound like honking geese to anyone else who might be listening*

Sis: When was the last time I read that book… 1958? 1960? When was the last time we even talked about “The Black Stallion” books?

Me: I’m thinking mid-1960s…

We’ve often shared these experiences among us, and similar ones with our other sibs.

Three years ago I sent my mother a CD as a gift. I happened to call my Mom a few days later while my other sister was visiting. That sister picked up the phone and said, out of the blue, “What’d you buy Mom? A CD of bird calls, right?”

Right.

Which left us convulsed with laughter, as my mother hadn’t told her about the CD, I hadn’t talked to my sister about the gift, and I had never mentioned sending anything to my mother about birds much less a CD on something as esoteric and unexpected as bird calls!

Incidents like this are rife in my family. Several years back, for example, my three sisters independently all picked out and then sent to my mother the identical birthday card. They didn’t shop at the same stores or store chains, either, to find the card; one of the three lived in Alabama at the time, while the other two lived in separate cities in Michigan.

My sisters and I have spontaneously bought the same swatches of patterned fabric (while living hundreds of miles apart), purchased the exact same pairs of shoes, sent identical gifts to each other, and more. Much more.

I’m sure all of this is sheer coincidence.

Right?

Yeah. Right!

I think I’ll go finish reading my book now.