Covered in chocolate

Don't you just love Chocolate covered cherries? I have a special relationship with chocolate covered cherries myself. It has become a habit, a habit that I continue to  repeat over and over and probably will continue repeating for quite some time. I can't stop myself, I just have to do it, once I started I simply cannot stop...Now before you consider a covered with chocolate intervention for me, allow me to explain.

I have bought a box of chocolate covered cherries for my mom every Christmas that I can recall, I can't remember one that I didn't get a box for her, well ever since I was old enough to buy gifts that is.

When I left South Carolina and moved to New Mexico I started mailing a box wrapped up as a gift to her every year, just a cheap box that you can buy anywhere, nothing fancy and she always loved them. She said that the grandkids were always happy when she opened the box, because she always shared the chocolate covered cherries with them, needless to say the box didn't last long, so I started sending two boxes, one for her to share and one for herself.

Since Cindy and I are now living in California the tradition continues, the only difference is that a few years back, rather than buy the cheap box of chocolate covered cherries we invested in a pound of assorted milk and dark chocolate covered cherries from See' Candies.

Mom's box of chocolate covered cherries from See's Candies

For a brief history on See's Candies, A Canadian chocolate salesman named Charles See opened a shop in Los Angeles California in 1921, where his mom Mary See made and sold her own chocolate and candy recipes, a successful business bloomed and is still going strong today.

Being raised in South Carolina I knew nothing about See's Candies, but with my Cindy being raised in California, she knew all about them, she talked me into taking her there to get candies for herself.

When you go to See's Candies the first thing they do is offer you a candy sample as you walk through the front doors, Man that candy is good! As you figured it's a little pricey but as they say "it only costs a little more to go first class."

"Can I have a chocolate covered cherry for my husband to sample?" Cindy asked the clerk behind the glass candy case. And after tasting that sample I have never bought another box of .98 cent chocolate covered cherries for my mom, the price has jumped up enough now that one box costs what a quarter of a centuries worth of the cheap cherries would have cost, but that is OK, it's worth it.

As a matter of fact the tasting of that sample is when Mom's first pound of cherries were bought, and of course a box of assorted dark chocolate nuts for Cindy.

After that first See's Candy Christmas for my mom I was talking with her on the phone. "What did you think of that candy Mom?" I asked. "That's some really good candy" she replied. "What did the grand kids think?" "They don't know anything about it" she said. "Really, did you eat it all already?" I asked. "No, I only ate two pieces and then I hid it in my closet, I'm going to make this candy last...it's too good to share."

So now we have a new tradition for mom, no more cheap cherries, but rather a pound of assorted milk and dark chocolate covered cherries from See's that she enjoys for as long as she can make them last from their spot safely hidden in her closet.

Do you have a tradition that you repeat every year? And what is your favorite candy?