Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Care Package

Today was a significant milestone in my Army career: I picked up my first care package while deployed. And what a care package it was! It contained a few of the little items I had asked for, such as a cheap watch and some keychain LEDs. There was also a nice selection of Easter candy (which I would of course never even begin to think of touching before Easter). There were also some cookies of course, which I will share with my coworkers tomorrow. My mother is still committed to using baked goods to buy me friends. Digging through all these things, I also came across a mysterious block wrapped in aluminum foil inside a ziploc bag. I assumed it was brownies, stacked and wrapped together, and left it for last. When I picked it up, however, I immediately knew it was too heavy, too dense to be simple brownies. Wait, could it be? No... I slowly opened the bag and sniffed, yet refused to believe my nose when it corroborated my growing suspicion. No way, there couldn't be any left, could there? Excitement mounting, my hands nearly shaking, I unwrapped the foil to reveal -- joy of joys! -- an entire half-loaf of Christmas fruitcake! For those of you who don't understand our family's love for this singular, maligned confection, I only wish you might have the chance someday to sample our fruitcake, and forget everything you'd even known or been lead to believe about it. That said, I'm now in a bit of a quandary. How exactly do I go about eating it? I'm not sharing, that's for certain. But even so, I have a distinctly finite amount of fruitcake to enjoy. My instinct is to savor it, eating only a tiny portion every few days, to make it last as long as possible. The heterogeneous nature of the fruitcake, however, means that a sufficiently large bite must be taken to ensure the complete fruitcake experience, so a balance of concerns is in order. This is the point where you accuse me of overthinking this to a nearly ludicrous degree. And I can only shake my head sadly, because you just do not understand. Thank you, Mom. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

7 comments:

Elephantschild said...

I think she's been hoarding that chunk, just for you.

I'm remembering standing in the aisle of the Fleet Farm, debating the various merits of dried and sugared pineapple over and above candied pineapple.

Oh, did she send any Peeps?

Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake said...

Oh, she definitely sent Peeps. How could one possibly celebrate our Resurrected Lord without garishly colored marshmallow animals?

Elephantschild said...

Shhhhh!!! Or Oriental Trading will start making cross-shaped ones.

Mercy. Perish the thought.

Nic and Laura said...

Hey, I didn't get any peeps in my package...I knew you were the favorite!

Anonymous said...

this must be the post your mom was telling me about...she thinks you're funny.

Lutheran Lucciola said...

This post is great...made me smile!

Enjoy!

Mom said...

Now I feel doubly guilty! First, because Dad and I ate the other half of the fruitcake. Secondly, because I didn't put peeps in Laura's box.

And Dad is always telling me I don't need to "count the M & M's" anymore. (In case my first born son reads this, I will have "peeps" for you.) I love you all---equally!