Coffee Complexities and the Christmas Conundrum

Ok, so I'm a little late discussing this material as "this week," but regardless, the following is actually ridiculous. I'm also sorry that I'm so terrible at keeping up with a blog...

One of my favorite days of the year has come again: the day that Starbucks brings back holiday drinks. As anyone who knows me well will recall, when Starbucks introduced their newest holiday drink last year, the Chestnut Praline latte, it was essentially a religious experience for me. I believe my exact words were, "it's as if I created my perfect drink in my mind and Starbucks figured it out and then made it specifically for me..." or something along those lines. So this year, I got the email that holiday drinks were back and Sara and I went off to the nearest Starbucks to celebrate the most wonderful time of year.

Yeah, there's no Chestnut Praline. I had to settle for Toffee Nut. Just take that in for a moment.

                                                         Toffee. Nut. Disappointment.

It's bad enough that my local Starbucks isn't serving my beloved Chestnut Praline this year, but it just adds insult to injury that the best replacement they could come up with is Toffee Nut...that's like a year-round option anyway if you just ask for it. Such sadness. But now begins the process of either locating a city in the UK that does have Chestnut Praline or paying off someone we know who works at Starbucks to send a bottle so I can force an unsuspecting barista to make my latte. I anticipate that wouldn't get any strange responses...at all.

Moving on from this heartbreak, let's discuss for a moment the absence of Thanksgiving in this country and the unexpected repercussions of that. Obviously I understand that Thanksgiving is an American holiday, and I was in no way expecting people to be celebrating here or to see pumpkin pies and turkey decorations everywhere. I was also not expecting, however, to walk into town the day after Halloween and find myself in a winter wonderland complete with wreaths hanging overhead and Santa window displays. This isn't an exaggeration...pine branches and twinkling lights are literally everywhere already, and I don't know how to handle it because it is simply not time for my Michael Bublé Christmas album to be on repeat yet. Now, all I ever want is to be surrounded by Christmas lights, pine scented everything, and trees covered in beautiful gold and silver ornaments...I was just not expecting it on November 1.

So that's where I stand right now: amid a gorgeous display of Christmas cheer that I refuse to acknowledge or embrace until after Thanksgiving...disappointing toffee nut latte in hand.

Also currently toying around with the idea of declaring our apartment a sovereign nation....

Sarichellia's flag would be a block of cheese on a deep purple background. Musings.