So, I’m all about seasonal treats and enjoying special flavors, but does anyone else feel like everything is being completely overdone these days?   For the last few years I have been saying that I have to all but avoid Trader Joe’s in December as I feel that the entire store is dipped in chocolate.  Each year I find something new drenched in decadence and it seriously has got me wondering when I am going to stroll into the produce aisle and find a chocolate dipped carrot!  Well, now that Halloween and Thanksgiving are upon us, I noticed that everything in the store is now pumpkin flavor.  Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE pumpkin.  I could make a living out of scooping the filling out of a pumpkin pie as I have been known to do at Thanksgiving, but why do we suddenly need: pumpkin cookies, pumpkin crackers, pumpkin pop-tarts, pumpkin energy bars, pumpkin cereal, pumpkin macaroons, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin waffles, and pumpkin caramels!?  I’ll admit, my mouth was watering just typing that list, but at the same time, doesn’t it seem a bit excessive?

One of the joys of the holidays is having the treats that you only get once a year, such as your grandmother’s pumpkin pie.  Well if everything in the grocery store is suddenly pumpkin pie flavored, aren’t we kind of taking the fun out of it?

Maybe I am alone on this one, but personally, I love to keep some things sacred and I clearly have stumbled upon one of them.

Gram, I will be looking forward to your pumpkin pie on November 27th….