A few years ago I developed an appreciation for Creme Savers, a Wrigley product that is a spinoff of its popular LifeSavers brand. The Creme Savers line of hard candies was launched 10 years ago as a swirled mixture of a fruit flavor along with a dairy cream flavor.

Creme Savers never impressed me much until they came out with a chocolate and caramel flavor. It substitutes chocolate for the fruit flavor and caramel for the the traditional cream flavor. For those that like that kind of thing, it’s a very pleasant little candy.

But I’m kind of a health nut, so I don’t eat much candy. I’m not a purist as I was when I first began my health kick 20 years ago. (Frankly, I was a bit fanatical about it, which made me a major pain in the tail to friends and family, who graciously put up with my antics.) So two or three times a week, I will pop a Creme Saver into my mouth.

A few years ago I started carrying a few pieces of the hard candy in the pocket of my suit coat to be used for refreshment during the long Sundays when I was serving in the ward bishopric. Eventually my two youngest children discovered this trove in my pocket. Now our Sunday church meetings never pass without my two youngest coming up with beatific countenances, asking for a “striped candy.”

I never eat from my pocketed stash of Creme Savers any more. Instead, every Sunday morning I make sure to put four or five of the delicious hard candies into my pocket in anticipation of presenting them to my little children. My young ones are usually persistent enough throughout the three-hour block to clean me out.

A couple of years ago all of our local grocery stores quit stocking the chocolate and caramel flavor. I figured that my kids would accept Werther’s caramel hard candy as a substitute. But I soon discovered that this was simply inadequate. I ended up buying a box of 12 packages of my children’s desired candy from Amazon.com.

My five-year-old daughter has discovered that I will reward good behavior at home with one of her favorite striped candies. This has become almost a daily routine for her. When I give in to her pleas, she has developed this ritual where she lays with her back on the bed with her head hanging over the edge of the mattress. She then has me unwrap the tasty treat and pop it into her upside down mouth. I still don’t know where she got that idea.

Geez. What a dad won’t do for his kids.
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