January 19: National Popcorn Day

GUISE.  National Popcorn Day.  It is a real thing that really exists.  I woke up with the genuine sense that today would be a magical popcorn themed Christmas type holiday.  I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED.

Justin and I are already popcorn connoisseurs so we couldn't just... eat popcorn... and call it a holiday.  What kind of a cop out would that be?  Instead we picked a couple of popcorn related activities to do over the course of the day.

First we stared into the abyss and the abyss stared back into our souls.

I'm just shittin' ya.  We made Jiffy Pop.  It was amazing.  The heat, the anticipation, the... rhythmic circular motion of the handle... 

...

...

What were we talking about?

Take it off, you dirty girl.

After making the jiffy pop and taking cold showers, we held our very own popcorn taste test.  See, since we are popcorn gourmets, we both figured we would be able to taste each of our favorite brands without actually being able to see them.  It's a skill, like anything else.

The Lucky Charms marshmallows are palate cleansers

Our test subjects:

Pirate's Booty (it's puffed corn - it counts)

Smartfood

Popcorn Indiana White Cheddar and

The Jiffy Pop (so it didn't feel left out)

Justin got them 100% right, although he ALMOST got Smartfood and Popcorn Indiana confused.  It's good he corrected it before I had to point it out because I'm pretty sure that's grounds for divorce in 15 states.

Of course, I immediately made the same almost-mistake.

Because we're soulmates.

After the taste test, I made us a big bowl of fresh caramel corn and we watched Out Cold.  The movie choice is unrelated to the holiday.  I just think any holiday can be made better by adding a film in which Zach Galifianakis makes it with a hot tub.

I guess you had to be there.

Popcorn day was basically a normal Sunday for us, but with a lot more popcorn.  Which is never a bad thing.  On a more serious note - part of the reason popcorn day was so much fun is that we had no expectations for it.  That was one of the things we chatted about over the course of the afternoon.  Yes, we ate popcorn, but we really had a day that was a mix of joyful celebration and abject laziness - so, you know, perfect.  We've started thinking that maybe if there were fewer expectations about holidays, people would enjoy them more.  

Why does Christmas have to be a chore?  When did traditions become obligations?  And why the heck can't we all just hang out and eat some popcorn?  Just some things we've been musing on.