packaged delights

There was this guy who hung out on my floor in our dorm, Freshman year. He didn't live there, but afflicted us with his presence regularly. I remember him going on and on about the goodness of It's-Its, a strange frozen treat. (This may well have been in reactionary defense of the west coast, in the face of yet another person from New Jersey going on and on about their Fribbles from Friendly's...) I sometimes wonder why this is so much easier to remember than my French vocabulary.

I'm pretty sure I had my first It's-It this summer, when I found them in the cooler at the little store in Tuolomne Meadows, where we stopped for indulgences on our 20-day hike. It was pretty good. I mean, really: how can it not be, with ice cream, oatmeal cookies and dark chocolate? But I was really taken by it's packaging--charming and nostalgic, taking me back to an imagined era way before Freshman year.

Then, today, as my dear husband was hunting down strawberry Mochi from the freezer aisle, I spotted this gem: old-fashioned cardboard packaging of a 3 It's-It treat. Perhaps I was set up by the appallingly nostalgic Christmas music our country station plays this time of year. It won me over immediately.
Kind-of like the child who ends up playing with the box their Christmas present came it, I think I enjoyed this package more than it's treat.

stockings!

I found this old Army wool blanket at a thrift store much earlier this year; it's been lying in my closet, waiting for a new life. This Christmas, it decided it would become stockings for some little ones I love.

I'm also excited that the bright orangey-red ric-rac I bought on a whim this summer has found it's place to shine.

Now I just get to imagine what Santa will add to these... That is, assuming my young friends are nice.