My guy and I did a little last-minute Christmas shopping today in Santa Cruz. He did most of the shopping. I'm happy to say that most of my gift-getting was done already. My favorite stop of the day was to Mackenzies Chocolates, for what should be obvious reasons. Holy yummy, Batman! They have some delectable treats at this shop. They also have a variety of chocolate banana slugs, including some bright yellow ones. Must be pretty popular with the UCSC crowd. I love that their website has a search function all its own. Heaven forbid someone shopping online cannot find their treat of choice.
I bought some English toffee, which I use as my litmus test for chocolate makers. I bought some to share with my family for Christmas. In the interest of not feeding my family second-rate toffee, I broke into the box tonight to try. It was so good, I don't think I can subject my loved ones to this treat - it will just make them crave more and, since they don't travel out this way too often, it would just be some sort of unrequited chocolate-love. I care about them too much to make them suffer so.
We shopped at Palace Arts and Office Supply, Paper Vision, Zoccoli's Delicatessen, and a bunch of antique stores on Pacific Avenue that were fun to walk through.
We are now watching Sound of Music. We caught it about half-way through. It's been a few years since I've seen it all the way through. Before my family bought the movie (on VHS), I would watch the TV version every year. It's just that good. I'm pointing out to my guy the point where I would start to get scared while watching the von Trapps try and escape the Nazis. I don't know what age I was where I started to understand exactly what was going on. I like to think that the sort of complicity, even accommodation, that Herr Zeller and other Austrians provided to the Nazis would not be so easy today. That people who are aware of history would be more quick to stand up to tyranny and fear. But what is it they say about history? How many people remember? How many times has humankind repeated? And where is Julie Andrews when you need her?
