Imagine a Peep crossed with a 3 Musketeers with a dash of Kahlua flavoring

With two days to spare, it is FINALLY feeling like Christmas! Ever since I was a little kid, the season really doesn’t feel holly and jolly until I eat my first Spud Bar.

My mom grew up in Idaho and my grandparents had a farm. Over the years they grew all sorts of things but beans and corn are what I remember most about their farm. Well, aside from the creaky barn, the rusting ag equipment scattered about, the cats hanging around the back door waiting for table scraps smothered in bacon grease, the irrigation ditch the cows drank from, and the ever-present smell of dusty fertilizer. I’m not sure if Grandma and Grandpa ever actually grew potatoes.

Until recently, I actually can’t remember a Christmas that didn’t include a Spud Bar. Early in the holiday season, a box of 24 of this oddly spongy, chocolate covered, coconut-sprinkled confection intended to resemble a potato would arrive on our doorstep to glee and groans. Spud Bars seem to be a love ‘em or hate ‘em treat and I fell into the love ‘em category. Mom and Dad would usually each get their fill after a bite or two. Which left 22 Idaho-imported Spud Bars for me to devour or disperse amongst the curious and/or unsuspecting.

When I was in school, I would excitedly share my Spuds with my friends. When I got older, I would take them to work. I was at one company for seven Christmases. By the time I moved onto a new, uninitiated pasture, I actually had co-workers who would run down the hall in the other direction when I came bearing Spud Bars…and others who camped out at my office door wondering when my shipment would arrive.

Years ago, with a few Spud Bars still yet to find homes, I was inspired by a sugar high and poked an ornament hook through the top of one bar’s wrapper. I hung it on the tree and it is now one of my most treasured ornaments. It wouldn’t surprise me if it hasn’t aged a bit.

Grandma and Grandpa died about a year apart a couple of years ago. As it goes with people you dearly love, I still feel their absence. So it was with a certain poignancy that I got very excited earlier this month when we were in an old-time candy store in Oregon. Browsing among the Bazooka gum and taffy and Pez and Pixy Stix, I was shocked to find a small display of Spud Bars. I bought just one and ate it tonight while driving around looking at Christmas lights.

Merry Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa!