Sweet
Keep the “Chewy” in Christmas 
If you were to take Christmas trees, baby Jesus, giant inflatable Santas, It’s a Wonderful Life, Stockings hung by the chimney with care, wrapping paper, yuletide cheer, and Mariah Carey’s Christmas album and melt them all together in the Wonkamatic, you would be left with Brach’s Christmas Nougat. For me, this is the King of Christmas candy.
It is easy to overlook this gem because much like the babe lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes, the Christmas Nougat is often out-shined by those treats that found room in the inn (or in this case, the end-cap of the candy aisle.) I am not suggesting that a simple piece of candy can save us from our sins but I am reminding you that just like the Son of God, great things can often be very unassuming.
So when you are out in the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping dropping $8 on Chocolate oranges or Toblerones (has anyone ever had a Toblerone outside of December or an airport?), remember to take joy in the simple things. The humble Christmas Nougat wrapped in cellophane and lying in the bottom of a candy dish is totally sweet.
Weak
I have a Secret (and it has nothing to do with Santa) 
Today I am wearing socks that don’t match. Now settle down, it isn’t as if I am sporting a brown and a blue or a striped and an argyle. I simply have on two black socks with a very subtle thread pattern that happens to be slightly different on each foot. Maybe I am the only one with this problem but I would suspect that out there among the masses there are other households with secret bags or baskets full of misfit socks that have lost their way. It is often an intricate recipe of sock eating spin cycles, rogue socks separating into different loads of laundry, and a dash of “I folded all of these clothes, no way I am spending the next 5 minutes matching this sock soup at the bottom of the basket” that result in the odd sock stash.
I don’t understand that when I buy 3 pairs of navy blue socks they all have to differ just slightly enough that I am shoehorned into 3 combinations instead of the much larger number of options if any of the six socks could be paired together (I have a friend that will tell me what that number is on the off-chance he reads this thing, but I am too busy comparing candy to the Prince of Peace to be bothered with mathematics.) Fortunately for me, my pants are long enough to hide this slight wardrobe malfunction and I will remember that whichever leg I decide to cross, will be locked in for the rest of the day in social settings. I have been toying with the idea of just throwing away the whole odd sock bag and starting fresh this year with socks that are the same and have colored toes or something to make them easier to identify and match.
I mean, seriously, I have a degree. I have an important job in a professional setting, other people don’t do this right? Standing in the laundry room barefoot clutching 3 different socks in my hand and rummaging through a basket playing my own little version of Where’s Waldo is totally weak.
Simon C. Holland 
December 23rd, 2011 at 7:54 pm
My family has given up on sock matching a long time ago. We have a laundry basket that maintains its permanent residence at the end of our sectional couch. In there, you’ll find 5 different people’s socks, ranging from my 2 year old son’s socks all the way up to me and the wife’s socks.
“Folding” socks is like putting one of those 1000 piece puzzles together, except usually you put a puzzle together once, and be done with it. Folding the amount of socks we have, of all sizes, and colors, WOULD be a daily job…that is if we folded socks anymore, but we don’t.
When it comes to socks, it’s everybody and every sock for itself.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:50 am
I love toblerone, and have never eaten it at airports or Christmas… I just eat it whenever wherever…. leaving the sock thing coz with four boys there are always odd socks lurking round my house..
Merry Christmas 🙂
December 20th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Ben, my husband, would pin a pair of socks together before he washed them. Simple, yet elegant.
January 5th, 2012 at 6:20 pm
I love knowing that about Ben.
December 20th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
I think I remember that episode of Friends, probably got it at the airport. Sock gods actually explains a lot, like some of those missing socks undoubtedly get offered up as “sacrificial lambs” during the spin cycle.
December 20th, 2011 at 12:47 am
I like to throw caution to the wind and wear random socks if that’s what I end up with. I’ve had some really good luck with certain socks, so my theory is to not mess with the sock gods. Nougat is GOOD!
December 19th, 2011 at 8:35 pm
Eeew on the nougat, ditto on the socks, and wasn’t there an episode of Friends where Joey had a giant Toblerone?
December 19th, 2011 at 7:58 pm
My husband will wear non-matching socks (same color, slight difference) and not care. I, meanwhile, will spend hours (ok not hours but very long moments) in the laundry room matching socks. Not just mine but the whole household’s. It’s a sickness – and just one more reason I get angry a lot.
December 19th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
I have something I call the mating bag and I often play the dating game. Yes I am married and it has nothing to do with fresh available men. It is all about those single socks baby. Winter brings out the sack I keep hidden away like a bad hair doo. I can wear them all again. And there are so many of them I can wear a different (different) pair everyday. All I need is winter, my sack of wonderful mates and my snow boots.
December 19th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
You’re not alone. That’s why I have about 15 pairs of the exact same plain black socks. Lose one, throw one out because it’s more hole than sock? No problem! I’ve got more. And no matching required.