Sweeties

We love marzipan, and sometimes a bit of it finds its way into our Christmas stockings. This is the first year I have ever seen pig-shaped marzipan, though. It came in a package labeled "lucky". There was also a marzipan die in the container, but it got eaten. I can see how a die is related to luck, as well as the four leaf clover, but I'm a little puzzled about the pig and the mushroom. These are surely the lucky items of a culture I am not too familiar with. Do you know?

And speaking of such things, the mini Boden catalog has a pajama set with "jam sarnies" on it. I don't know what these are either, but at least in Boden's world, there are on par with milk and cookies.

The candies in the photo which are not marzipan are homemade licorice taffy. My colleague's mother makes them every year at Christmas. If you love strong licorice, which I do, they are wonderful. Homemade candy pretty much goes down on the list of "why I love the midwest". Or maybe I just don't come from candy-making people back east. Either way, it's delicious.