Baby, It's Cold Outside Musing

And how! With a low tonight of 1 measley degree above zero, "cold" doesn't come close to being accurate. Even "Harold," my big pumpkin (he's a "herald" of fall and all the wonderful things that follow, hence, he's Harold) is bundled down in a Santa hat as he sits on my kitchen table. But I am heartened ... there are things to keep me cozy and happy and on a sugar high, even on these frigid Wyoming winter nights ...

I've fallen in love with Hershey's new Kisses - the white chocolate ones with bits of peppermint in them, partly because they're SO STINKING GOOD, but also because something about their taste has triggered some hidden nostalgia deep in my memory, and until tonight, I couldn't put my finger on it ...

Meltaway mints.

That's what these Kisses taste like (ah, if only ALL kisses tasted like a meltaway mint ...). I loved meltaway mints -- the pink, green and yellow mints coated in little white sugar balls that grocery stores and Swiss Colony booths sell in gold-rimmed celophane bags ... and while I'm not sure that these peppermint Kisses will replace meltaway mints in my mind as a harbinger of Christmas, I'm glad that a family-sized bag of thee goodies cost as much as a little gold-rimmed celophane bag of meltaways cost ... so I'm nostalgic, but economically so ...

In other, sad news: I made a midnight trip to Wal-Mart last night (nothing new there), specifically to replenish my supply of that wonderful peppermint-flavored coffee that sustained me through a Thanksgiving shift ... only to find out that they were sold out of it.

Woe is I.

I bought some pumpkin spice-flavored coffee instead, and though I love all things pumpkin and pumpkin spice, it just doesn't make up for the anticipation of peppermint. And it's only appropriate that as I type this, Johnny Cash is singing "Blue Christmas" on the Internet radio station I'm listening to ... blue, indeed.