Every month, I’ve printed out a calendar and have tapped it to the wall above my desk. It’s been the best way to organize myself and keep track of the days I am supposed to be in the office. I can write in anything that changes. This month has four days with the word ‘cheese’ written in blue ink. Every year Whole Foods does a 12 Days of Cheese where they offer a special fancy cheese for 50% off. We miss it every year because we forget or we wait too late in the day. They sell out fairly early. This year we got organized. We found the list of offerings for the year and chose the ones we were most interested in trying. I have driven to Whole Foods on four different mornings to buy those cheeses. This sounds like a bit of a hassle, but I want you to know that each day of doing this has brought me great joy.

Each morning I left Whole Foods with a fancy cheese in my hands, I have been positively giddy. I don’t know if it is because I’m getting a normally $20 cheese for half price or if it has something to do with actually getting to eat the fancy cheese. I suspect it is a combination of both. One of those cheeses is real stinky, comes in a box that we’ve picked up before, but have always set right back down after seeing the price tag. One cheese has a ribbon of ash running down the center and another one has whole pepper corns dotting the inside. One of those cheeses says on the packaging “slice off top and eat with a spoon”. I nearly swooned over that one. We attended a holiday party one year (remember those?) where the smell of stinky cheese hit you the minute you walked through the door. All of the children loudly complained about the cheese and walked around holding their little noses. Michael and I just looked at each other with wide-eyed excitement because stinky cheese usually means that it is amazing cheese. The cheese was disappointing, but the anticipation of getting to taste that cheese was exquisite!

This isn’t first time I’ve waxed poetically about cheese and probably not the last time. You’re probably wondering how someone who eats so much cheese can still manage to lose almost thirty pounds. The truth is that I don’t eat so much cheese. I have a little bit of cheese on my Tuesday night tacos and that’s about it during the week. The cheese is a weekend treat. Because it is a weekend treat, I splurge on something really good, but I always stick to a reasonable cheese budget. I would never buy a $20 cheese, weekend treat or not. So there is a bit of excitement and joy in getting to try something new and fancy. I bought some nice olives, a can of smoked oysters and some prosciutto for Michael. We are going to have a spectacular charcuterie board for Christmas. I feel like this is the best thing I’ve ever done for us, even if some of that cheese turns out to be disappointing. The joy I’ve gleaned from just purchasing the cheese will offset the disappointments.

I guess you could also consider this a Thankful Friday entry, just a day early. With the exception of a year in pictures post, I don’t see myself writing anything much here until after the New Year and I am pretty grateful for cheese. I hope everyone is having a safe, socially distanced holiday. I hope that even though we are not able to be close with some of our loved ones this year that you find joy in your day.

Peace.