Hands off kid!

Each year, around Christmas time, I buy a box of these...

Chocolate Covered Cherries!!!!

I purchase them in the store, looking over my should like I'm doing something absolutely sinful. Giggling on the inside.

I bring them home and, glancing left and right, I secretly tear open the box. 

I eat one while standing up at the kitchen counter. Only one. And each day I eat one until they are all gone.

Then the next year around Christmas I'll do the same thing.

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Are they my favorite? Nope. They're just "okay" actually. The dark chocolate kind is a little better than the milk chocolate.

You see...my mom loves these chocolate covered cherries and always bought them around this time of year for herself. But when I was a kid she NEVER let me have one. Ever. EVVVVEEEER. 

I'd ask. She said no. I began to know them as "mommy's candy, hands off!"

After so many years of this I started to think they were an "adult only" candy. Like no kid anywhere ever got to enjoy chocolate covered cherries. They fell in along the lines of "life's not fair" and "I'll tell you when you're older."

One day in college I was at the store with a friend when I spotted them on the shelf. Just a simple box of candy sitting there for any adult to buy. I had honestly forgotten that they exist. I realized "heeeeyyyy...I can buy these for myself now!" and brought a box home, anticipating their ooey gooey goodness.

They weren't nearly as good as my childhood of yearning anticipated but I still enjoy getting a box each year and feeling like I'm truly a grown up. And yes I feel a little naughty eating them because....shhhh...they're an adult only delight. 

:)

(My mom feels totally bad that she "deprived" me of these as a kid. Come on mom- you could have said "yes" at least once! I DO let Nathan have one or two each year too.)

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What is your favorite treat this time of year?