Last year, I shared my search for peppermint candy canes.  They just don’t have them here.  Candy canes are quite common — I’ve found entire Christmas market stalls devoted to nothing else — but I’m still looking for a peppermint candy cane among all the strawberry, apple and mango flavored ones that abound here in Vienna.

This year, though, I’m armed and I’m lucky.  After being caught without proper candy canes last year (they don’t even have Peppermint Mochas at Starbucks!) and feeling surprisingly sad about it, I was saved by my in-laws and a friend’s parents, who all supplied me with a stock of peppermint candy canes that we haven’t quite used up.  (I also stocked up on peppermint hot chocolate mix while we were home in the U.S. this summer.)

It’s a good thing, because I’m still looking.  They really don’t have them here.  But, while I’m kind of disappointed about not having them here, it’s nice to feel the love from back at home every time I pop a peppermint candy cane into a mug of hot chocolate.