What is it about warm drinks on a cold day? The older I get… you know, because I’m basically 90… the more I want something warm in my bones on a cold morning. So even though I was one who previously favored crackin’ open a cold Diet Coke first thing in the morning, I’ve recently traded that in for a warm cup of Joe to jumpstart my day.
But what I love most. What my very favorite warm drink is. Is wassail. I know… you’re thinking… wassail? What? Are you from the middle ages? And to that, I must answer, perhaps. But it’s my very favorite cup of cozy. Probably because every cup conjures up memories of tree-decorating and Christmas music listening in the little blue house I grew up in. And drinking it cold reminds me that it used to sit on a step in the garage and I’d ladel a cup, and sip a bit of it before heating because it was perfectly chilled from the winter air. And it reminds me of coming home from college and still smelling wassail. And chex mix in the oven. The mix of cloves, and oranges, and baking pretzels filling the house as the wind howled outside. Do you have something like that? Something that just takes you right back?
Now, I make it for the boys. All four of them. Every year when the Holidays hit. When we usher in the tree. When we start up the Christmas music. I crack open my mama’s cookbook {yes… my mom has so many recipes, she’s printed a cookbook}. I simmer the cloves and the cinnamon… for much longer than it calls for. And when it’s all done, I pour it in mugs for everyone to wrap their mitts around. And I beg them to never tell me if they aren’t fond of it. Because every cup of wassail, for me, is a cup of memories. A cup of Christmases past. Present. And hopefully, if we’re lucky, future.
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