candy...

I've almost cleared all of the holiday candy out of our house.  And no, I will absolutely not admit to eating most of it myself.  It needs to be gone.  I'm making the necessary sacrifices to get rid of it all (without wasting it, of course)  All of it.  Oh how I love candy.  love it.  love it.  love it.  (It's kind of like having a teenage crush on the bad boy...you just can't help it!)  Oh, and I can't eat just a little.  If I open a package, I feel the innate need to eat it all.  Seriously, sometimes I wonder how I don't weigh as much as a small (or not so small) elephant.  and of course that's not to say I don't need to lose some poundage.  I do.  Soon.  Very soon.  As soon as all of this candy is gone.

And now, for some strange reason, I feel the need to reminisce about my old friend, candy.

I don't remember having candy "at the ready" in our home when I was little, but I still have plenty of childhood candy memories... 

I remember buying a whole box of miniature reeses peanut butter cups with my allowance money.  We were in Park City at Albertsons (or was it called Alpha Beta then??)...we had just been at my dad's shop and we were on our way home when we stopped.  I remember opening the box and there were nice little rows of miniature pb cups.  They weren't individually wrapped.  It was kind of like the nice boxes of chocolates you get from Kara's or See's.  And though I don't remember actually eating them, every time I smell a PB cup now, I remember that day, lol.  And speaking of pb cups...I have to eat all the chocolate off first, then eat the pb.  Anyone else?  Oh, and do you remember the old commercials about peanut butter cups?  The ones where two people, one eating peanut butter and one eating chocolate, would bump into each other and discover a great new taste?!? lol.  I should see if I can find one of those old commercials on You Tube. (ETA: Here's one!  If you have a minute, you should totally visit You Tube and search for these old commercials...but only if you have time to waste, lol.  Funny stuff.)

Speaking of candy commercials...why don't they have the Almond Joy/Mounds commercials anymore?  ...sometimes you feel like a nut (click-click) sometimes you don't...

Easter Candy.  I remember the Easter candy.  Our Easter Bunny made sure everyone got the EXACT same amount of candy in their baskets.  Seriously.  Exact.  She counted the jelly beans.  Every single one.  She was a good Easter bunny.  She also made sure we had Reeses peanut butter eggs every year (the BEST kind of Reese's.  ever.)  I can forgive her for the marshmallow/candy shell/egg thingies. eww.

I remember buying Cadbury Fruit & Nut candy bars at Thrifty's drug store.  They were for my Dad.  He probably got one of those candy bars from me every year for Father's Day and his birthday for a good 4 or 5 years - at least.  I don't even know if he liked them.  He must have.  I hope.

You know what else I remember buying at Thrifty's?  Candy cigarettes.  Now before you go off...I will say that I do not remember ever pretending to actually smoke them.  In fact, it was only recently when I was chatting with someone about this yummy childhood treat when I learned that, apparently, the middle was hollow and if you blew through it candy dust (aka smoke) would come out.  Whatever.  I just loved the flavor...and that powdery texture.  Something about that texture...just thinking about it makes me want to bite a piece of chalk (something else I may or may not have done when I was little).  Can't find those anymore though.  I was so excited one day a year or two ago when I found some candy sticks in the store that looked exactly like the candy cigarettes, minus the pink end, but they weren't even close.  Icky.  Icky.  Icky.

I know my mom's favorite candy bar is a Snickers.  And she loves black licorice.

I remember going to the bowling alley in the summer when I was little.  Mom would give us enough money to buy a treat after we bowled (we actually took lessons there for a few summers).  I honestly don't remember what I chose...but I remember my sister almost always bought a Big Hunk.  Sometimes she would whack it on the table so it would break into a million pieces and sometimes she just tore off little ooey gooey bits and sucked on them until they were gone.

Twizzlers licorice is a road-trip/boating/camping MUST HAVE.  Really, none of these family outings are complete without Twizzlers licorice.  Red AND Chocolate for me, please.

I once dated someone who loved red vines.  I ate enough red vines that summer to last me a lifetime.  I prefer Twizzlers, though an occasional red vine is a nice change...usually in a movie theater...but only if they are soft. (Did you know you can pop hard licorice in a microwave for a couple of seconds to soften it up?  You can also let it sit on your car dash in the sunshine for a while.  And if you're not in a hurry, you can put it in an air tight container with a slice of bread...it'll soften up just like brown sugar!)

I remember when atomic fire balls were bigger...and hotter.  We would pop them in our mouths and have contests to see who could keep it in the longest.  They were HOT!  When we couldn't stand it anymore, we'd put them in a cup with some water until the hottest layers dissolved, then we'd eat the rest.

When I was in high school, my friends and I made random Friday night trips to Day's Market where we would buy Sour Patch kids in bulk.  We'd eat them until our mouths were sore...ah, good times.  Oh, and lifesavers.  We'd buy peppermint (I think) lifesavers and then we'd go sparking.  We'd drive to the top of Valley Hills, where it was pitch black, turn off the car, open the lifesavers and chomp on them.  Of course, you have to kind of leave your mouth open when you chomp, because when you do, they SPARK.  They totally spark.  Did you know that?  I'd forgotten all about it until I started taking this fun trip down memory-candy-lane.  I need to take my kids out sparking.  Or just buy lifesavers and spark at home...in the dark...they'd get a kick out of that.

What ever happened to Peanut Butter Twix bars?  I liked them.  They have a different version now, with a chocolate cookie.  Don't care for it.  Why must they mess with perfection??  (and by they I mean the candy bar powers that be.)

I remember someone once telling me that potty training is easy - you just get a jar and fill it full of m&m's and then every time your child uses the potty, they get an m&m.  Um, yeah...not gonna work in my house where candy is a staple, not a treat.  We used other potty training methods, and I'm happy to report that all of my kids successfully use a potty - each and every day, thank goodness!   (And even without candy bribes!)

Today Zach asked me if we had any "sour people."  It took me a few minutes to realize he was asking for sour patch kids.  Nope.  None in our house at the moment. 

Tonight I was holding him on my lap and he asked for a drink of water.  I started getting up to get it and he said, "But only if I can have some molly tolly's, which after a few minutes I translated into "hot tamales".  His request was quite random, since I'm 99% certain he doesn't even LIKE hot tamales...they aren't one of our candy staples, lol.  Anyway, he then insisted that he didn't need water if we didn't have molly tolly's.  I think he just wanted me to snuggle with him a little bit longer. ;)

I remember Josh calling M&M's "yum-yum's."  I also remember being really sad when I realized he had stopped calling them yum-yums.

Brad isn't a big candy eater...thus the need for me to eat most of the candy that enters our home.  yeah, yeah, yeah...I'm usually the one bringing it in the first place.

Now that I think about it, Meagan really isn't a big candy eater - her Halloween candy lasted six months the last time she went trick or treating.  I think her candy of choice is Junior Mints though (a girl after my own heart). 

And Josh really isn't as big on the candy eating either...though I know he enjoys a cookies & cream bar or a kit-kat on occasion. 

Seth and Zach usually prefer bubble gum (bubble TAPE to be precise) when I let them choose a treat. But they like cookies & cream bars too.   

hmmmm...maybe it is just me.  No wonder it's taking so dang long to get rid of all this Christmas candy!