Sugar High

We are on Christmas candy overload. We always have candy in the house, so it's not really a big deal for my kids - they can take it or leave it. They NEVER binge on it. But for some reason, this week has brought a change in our usual candy consumption.

There are candy canes galore, chocolate Santas, peanut butter cups, Baby Ruths, Strawberry milkshake Whoppers, Sugar Babies, Jolly Ranchers, crystallized pineapple-mango slices, (which we justify as health food per it's containment of fruit), fudge - courtesy of Marcy, Reses Pieces, mint chocolate truffles, peppermint taffy, and one box of Hershey's Pot of Gold. And there is enough of all of it that we are attacking it relentlessly with drooling tongues, and we're not quite making a dent in it.

I am afraid for all of our teeth.

Yesterday morning, as Andrew and I lay in bed fighting the depression that sometimes comes with having to arise before eight o'clock on a morning when we hadn't been to bed until 1:30 a.m., I could hear "someone" drag a chair from the kitchen table to the counter and clamber up to reach the cupboards where a majority of the aforementioned stash is being kept. An internal debate immediately followed. Should I intervene or allow chocolates to be consumed for breakfast? I heard the lid being removed from the Pot of Gold, the cushioned paper cover being tossed aside, and the plastic tray crinkling as little fingers pried a chocolate from it's nest. I whimpered and decided that the damage had been done. "Someone" went back for 2 more chocolates before I finally determined that I had to put an end to it. I went through the remainder of the day strictly monitoring the intake of sweets.

Later, when I peeked in at the Pot of Gold chocolates sitting snugly in their molded seats, I felt so sad for them, because even Drew, who is only two, knew well enough to pass by the dark chocolates and partake of only the milk chocolate. Poor, sad, dark chocolates. They will be left in their pitiful little holes until someone eventually decides that the box should be tossed, dark chocolates having never fulfilled their life's purpose.

The Baby Ruths, however, may be vanquished by lunchtime today.