Marshmallow Santa’s

Well, it is mid January and the holiday season is over.

The gifts have all been given and in some cases returned. Santa is taking a well deserved rest, the Christmas tree and all of the decorations are down, the outside lights have been put away for another year and except for an overlooked decoration we will find in June, Christmas is done! All of that wonderful food that graced our tables and refrigerators has all been eaten. We have decimated the cookies, candies, cheese ball, pretzels, chips and dip, holiday nog drinks and other holiday special dishes. There are some remnants left, the hard candies that no one really wanted but due to Hobson’s choice I find myself eating now. I don’t know if it is because I am cheap or if I am just clinging to Christmas by eating that last mini candy cane.

It kind of reminds me of a couple of weeks after Halloween when I was a kid. All of the good candy was gone long before and all that was left were the foul tasting toffees that even my brother wouldn’t take from me. I would need to talk myself into eating them, but after all and at the end of the day they were made from sugar.

Tonight I was rummaging in the back of the pantry hoping to find a month old snickerdoodle or two when I came out with an old bag of mini marshmallows. They must have been used last winter or the winter before for after sledding hot chocolate with the grandkids. I knew they were old because they were hard to the touch, not rock hard but a hard that your typical marshmallow doesn’t have. I do so love old marshmallows! It was Christmas and Halloween rolled into one! They won’t last very long, but if I ration them I might have a week of bliss ahead of me.

I developed this bizarre taste when I was a kid going to the small town near my grandmother’s cottage. The General store would have a small assortment of candy and a large assortment of worms. Usually on the counter would be chocolate covered marshmallow Santas on a stick. They had been hanging around since the previous Christmas or the one before and marked down to 10¢. The chocolate had white spots which I liked to think was due to dampness and not flies laying their eggs on Santa’s beard and of course the mallow inside was brittle. I was glass is half full kind of kid. I think I was the only kid that bought those Santas and when I went back to the city I always checked the smoke shops for stale chocolate covered marshmallow pops. I never had any luck.

Anyways, the holidays are over and first thing tomorrow I need to shovel the snow off of the walk. Winter is here for the foreseeable future. SHIT!

Maybe later on tomorrow I’ll go out and buy some marshmallows for next January. Two bags should get me to February or March 2020.