December 18--Going Nuts

It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.  --Mother Teresa

    We are blessed in Wichita to have two of the most awesome retailers on the planet--Nifty Nut and Spice Merchant. The latter is our source for fresh-roasted coffee beans and spices, and it is heaven-on-earth if you are a tea drinker. The owner has an excellent deal going wherein if one donates at least $30 per month to our local public radio station, KMUW, one gets a free pound of coffee beans each month. That's a no-brainer.

    Nifty Nut has every kind of candy, nut, dried fruit and munchie mix you can imagine, plus a whole lot more. Around holiday time, it is INSANE. Every Christmas they sell thousands of gift-wrapped boxes of mixed nuts. On Monday I braved the crowds for my one-time Christmas visit. The lines were several people deep. I knew it would be crazy, so I settled into roaming with my list in hand. Boy, did I get lucky--a worker who just finished with a customer saw me in a no-line spot and offered to help. He followed me all over the store packing up treats, and I was out of there in 20 minutes, nothing short of a miracle. While he was weighing out one of the items, he said, "I LOVE Christmas!" Given the madhouse, I said, "Are you being sarcastic?" He replied, "NO! I love this job. We are so busy, the time flies by." What a delight! He could have been cranky as hell given the environment, but he was choosing to dig every minute. 

    Nuts and coffee--two life essentials!

        Leta

Bins of coffee beans at the Spice Merchant