Hot Cha Cha

Anybody ever have the candy called Red Hots when they were young? You remember these?

I used to eat these a lot when I was a kid, but I haven't seen them in probably thirty years. I didn't know they still existed. Talking about the Red Hots meant you were talking about the band Red Hot Chili Peppers now, not the candy.

I don't much care for either version of Red Hots. The band hasn't had a good song since 1991, and the candy is made from cinnamon oil which makes me sick.

My wife likes cinnamon oil-related things, though, and sometimes flaunts it on me. For example, she bought that box of Red Hots when she saw them at the dollar store the other day.  The joke was on her in the end, though. She thought they were Hot Tamales instead. She likes to eat Hot Tamales mixed with popcorn. It's something that a friend of hers put her onto years ago. She saw that box of candy above at the dollar store, and thought she would have some popcorn with them, but Red Hots are crunchy, not chewy like Hot Tamales. So, she didn't get to have her disgusting treat. Take that!

Boxing Day

I went to the store on the day after Christmas when they put everything on sale. At first, I didn't think I'd buy anything, but then I saw a little tiny white Christmas tree. Normally it costs $10, but everything was on sale for 50% off. At $5, I could buy it without feeling bad. So, I did. I thought maybe I could use it next year on my desk at work or replace one of my toy displays on my bookshelf in my study at home.

Then I got home, and I looked at the tree, and I got to thinking and remembering. Why did I bother to buy the white tree? There was a regular green tree, or even a blue one for that matter, but I chose the white one. Then I realized, it was probably this:

That's the Christmas tree I grew up with. Every year we dug that bottle brush-looking thing out of the garage and set it up. My mom had red lights that we hung on it, and most of the ornaments, as well as the topper (wasn't an angel or a star, not really sure what else to call it), were red.

After being flooded with these memories, I decided that I had to do my best to make it as close to a miniaturized version of that tree as I could. I went back to the store, and searched through their 50% off shelves until I managed to create this:

What do you think? Hopefully it'll look good wherever I decide to display it next year.