Chocolate Gratitude

Today I am grateful for hot chocolate. It seems silly, but my classroom is freezing. I sit in there and shiver for 75 minutes if I forget hot chocolate, and the shivering generally makes my brain fuzzy. I am grateful especially for my mother-who ships my hot chocolate from Utah. You Utah folk might be surprised to hear that Stephens hot chocolate isn't sold everywhere. In fact, in Ohio the closest you can get to flavored gourmet hot chocolate is spending megabucks at Starbucks for a grande hot chocolate. Although Starbucks hot chocolate is wonderful, I can't justify spending that sort of money every day. Of course, the school cafe also sells hot chocolate (and coffee and lattes in abundance) but it's only the plain chocolate variety, and isn't up to my extremely discerning chocolate tongue. Coffee is a much bigger deal outside of Utah, so the ability to buy quality hot chocolate is severely thwarted. To conquer that battle-my Mom travels to the grocery store and purchases several cans of my favorite Stephens cocoa--Raspberry, Cinnamon, Orange, and Mint--and ships it to me at least once a year. I truly am grateful for hot chocolate, especially when I consider what it takes to get my gourmet chocolate here.