Advent Calendar Day 2: Chocolate and the Christmas Elf

Amazingly enough with all the wonderful family Christmases we celebrated when I was growing up, I don't remember any special foods.  I think we just always had the typical - what I call mid-western fare - turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, green-bean casserole, cranberry sauce (yuk), etc. to name a few.  But, the one thing that always sticks out in my memory is the big platter of Brach's chocolates that my paternal grandmother Alpha Wilson always had at her house in Bonnie, IL.  She would buy bags of just about every kind of Brach's chocolate and the platter had divided sections for each type of chocolate.  She placed this on her coffee table and it was oh, so tempting to little, budding chocoholics!

Teresa Christmas 1958 Age 3

Here's another picture of me, at three years old, in costume like a Christmas elf, slyly sticking my hand in for another chocolate caramel after being told I couldn't have any more.  Are you starting to see a pattern here with me in the holiday get-ups?  This was totally my mother's fault! She obviously had some sick obsession with dressing her only child up in cutesy Christmas garb for the entertainment of others.  I don't miss the costumes, but I do miss my Grandma and her chocolates!