Gratitude Practice 2020 Day 90: Recycled Holiday Candy for the Parental Win

On the top shelf of our pantry is a rubbermaid bin where the sweet treats are stored. Our kid is almost five years old and somewhere around 3 feet 6 inches tall so a tall shelf is required because candy is kid bate and our girl is an addict. Tonight, after our little sleepy darling hit the sack, and like many parents, Burke and I began filling little plastic eggs in preparation for tomorrow morning. To complete this task we pulled the trusty bin from the top shelf and got to work.

We have absolutely ZERO shame in our holiday candy game because this box contains nothing but sheer parental magic. Red, white and blue snicker bites from a few past fourth of July's. A smattering of orange, black and purple wrapped candy from at least two maybe three previous Halloweens. Some Valentine's suckers and I felt supremely victorious tonight as I ferreted out a handful of pastel foil wrapped chocolate eggs that must have been bouncing around the bag since last Easter. SCORE! Here is the thing... tonight I am grateful that every passing Christmas I grab this bin to fill up her stocking and then carefully hang it on the mantle with holiday cheer. The next morning, she opens the stocking...oooo's and aahhh's, squeels in sugary delight and quickly eats a few pieces...then later that day the pile of holiday sugar is systematically gathered and dumped back into the bin that lives on the top shelf only to be used for kid bate and upcoming holiday celebrations. We repeat this process with every passing holiday all year round and...boom! A parental win. Lest you think we are horrible Barbarian parents, a new bag of holiday candy is added to the rotation as needed and I really love that we are able do this. Totally aware that at some point our very curious candy addict will begin to question why there are Halloween fish crackers in her stocking, American flag snicker bits in her easter basket and chocolate Santa in the Halloween candy bowl....but until then... we've got this plan on steady repeat and will continue to feel like the smartest parent on the block.