Holiday Coffee

I made holiday coffee this morning. Holiday coffee is an artifact from our early married days. I was not a big coffee drinker then. I usually kept a small bottle instant in the house for days I had to stay up late and work or for those other nights when I had stayed up late and had to work the next day. I loved the smell of coffee in the house and perhaps that was another reason I kept coffee in house. I had never learned to drink coffee though. There was never coffee in my home growing up—the beverage was taboo and the only time I was ever round coffee was at my best friend, John's. When we spent thew night at the Cantrells I always woke to the smell of fresh coffee.

Dianne and the kids moved out to Utah the Fall after we met. We were fortunate enough to find an apartment a half a block away from my own apartment. Dianne, Bridget and Brooks stuffed what the could in a huge moving company van and the necessities in their little BMW and headed West. Dianne did drink coffee and she made her coffee daily in one of those aluminum coffee pots on the stove. I usually had breakfast with the family of Saturday and Sunday mornings when I would roll over to their apartment early and Dianne always made the best coffee with milk and sugar. I did not see Dianne and the kids ,during the week until in the evenings, we we usually shared dinner. I had never had coffee with milk and sugar and these ingredients changed and my world.

I am not sure which holiday we started making our holiday coffee could have been Columbus, Veterans Day or even Thanksgiving but by Christmas I know we were having a special coffee. Dianne used just coffee and a lot of sweetened condensed milk and the coffee was great! Holiday coffee was not a big deal but a special deal. A time when life slowed down and we enjoyed the moments of being together. I have really learned to enjoy good coffee; over the ensuing years I have developed a taste for specific brands and coffee flavors. I now prefer to grind my own coffee purchasing bean coffee for home grind. I have the coffee shop, not far from my office, specialty flavors to make work my work day tolerable. I can get away with having good coffee at work since I am one of the only folks in the office who drinks coffee. My work mates are great putting up with my mixing and experimenting with all kinds of coffee. We rarely make our Holiday coffee with sweetened condensed milk any longer preferring just plain canned milk or one percent and some sort of sugar substitute. The flavor is always special and the moments cherished.

The kids are grown and gone now but I look forward to each and every holiday morning when things slow down just a bit and we turn on NPR and brew a cup of Holiday coffee.