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It’s Good Friday, and any kids (or big kids) in households where Easter is celebrated are probably eagerly awaiting the moment they get that glorious basket stuffed with colorful candy and toys.

When I was growing up, Easter was one of my favorite holidays. The Easter bunny always had our baskets filled and waiting for us on the dining room table when we got up that morning, so we’d eagerly dash for the dining room to see what he brought.

It was a good bet that we’d get some Cadbury Creme Eggs, which are my sister’s absolute favorite. Well, they probably compete in her heart and tummy for Peeps, which are her other favorite. I generally went along with both of those, as well as any foil-covered chocolates and jelly beans the bunny felt like leaving. But my favorite was the chocolate bunny — especially if it was solid chocolate instead of hollow.

After baskets, it was time to hunt for eggs. As I’ve mentioned in comments earlier this week, the Easter bunny always hid real eggs around our house. We dyed the eggs and he got them out of the refrigerator and hid them. The hunt was almost more exciting to me than the baskets.

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Faces look ugly when they’re printed askew.

Um, okay, enough with butchering lyrics by The Doors. It’s time to talk about the strangest holiday candy of them all: Marshmallow Peeps! Yes, these squishy little buggers with their waxy, machine-stamped eyes have reared their sugared heads again with the announcement of the first ever “Deck the Peeps” holiday art contest.

Another brainstorm from the folks over at Just Born, this holiday contest invites peep-le to create awesome holiday art with the candy, take a picture and email it to them for a chance to win … are you ready for this? … ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS WORTH OF PEEPS! Why, that might *even* be enough to reimburse the winner for all of the Peeps they purchased to Super Glue to a cardboard form in the hopes of winning!

The second-place winner receives $50 worth of Peeps & Company stuff, while the lucky third-place winner will take home a fabulous candy prize pack.

Get those brain cells grooving, folks, because it’s going to take an astonishing idea to beat out all of the other folks who are surely rubbing their hands together with glee and anticipation. And no, in this particular sentence I’m actually NOT being sarcastic, because I’ll bet this contest draws quite a few entries.

For more information about the contest and to enter your photo to win, click here. I, for one, will not be entering the contest because the mere mention of Peeps brings back traumatic memories. But let’s just say YOU wanted to do a Peeps project to enter in this contest. What would you make?

Meet our three contestants.

The folks at Mountain Dew sent me their three new “test” flavors, which are on store shelves now. They want customers to try each flavor, then go to their Web site and vote for their favorite. The winning flavor will become a permanent part of the Mountain Dew family. The others … well, I guess they’ll be put up for adoption or something.

I don’t drink a lot of soda myself. My special treat is a Coca-Cola every Saturday, and I suspect the affinity for that beverage goes back to my grandparents’ country store, where I was allowed to have one glass-bottled Coca-Cola every time I visited. My experiences with Mountain Dew are limited mostly to my days as an English major at Roanoke College, where I would pound a couple in order to stay up all night and cram for exams in Senior Seminar or Shakespeare or English Lit.

But I digress. I know lots of people love their Mountain Dew and think it’s the nectar of the gods or something. So I set up a little taste test of all three new flavors here in the features department of The Roanoke Times. I poured Dixie cups of each flavor for my colleagues Kathy, Tad and Mike, as well as for myself. We tasted them and these were the initial reactions:

1. Mountain Dew Distortion (described by Mountain Dew as “a deep green appearance and a lime flavor to compliment the original Mountain Dew base”) They’ve got the appearance down pat. I don’t think a frog in a nuclear waste dump could look much greener. Comments: “Tastes like that party punch with lime sherbet floating in it,” “reminds me of 7-UP, but stronger and sweeter,” “smells like lime Jell-O,” “not very highly carbonated.”

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Just Born, Inc.

Oh, no they didn’t.

Oh, yes they did.

Oh, no they didn’t come up with yet another shape for Peeps marshmallow treats.

Oh, yes they did. It’s reindeer heads.

Oh, no they didn’t create a sleigh pulled by cupcakes with reindeer heads.

Oh, yes they did. And the sleigh is filled with Mike ‘n’ Ike candies.

Well, now I’ve seen everything. Until Valentine’s Day.

These flippin’ bears really think they are something special because they were released by the Just Born company especially for Valentine’s Day. Just Born is the crazy company that makes marshmallow Peeps.

These bears are all high-falutin because they are “chocolate mousse” flavored instead of plain marshmallow like the originals, those little yellow chicks. See how the bear on the far right can’t even bother to have his picture taken? He’s all rolling his eyes to the side like he has better places to be.

When I took the bears out of their package, I thought the chocolate odor was a bit contrived. Really a bit fake. I didn’t bite anyone’s head off about it, though. Truthfully, I don’t care for Peeps.

I hope you guys and gals all get much better Valentine’s Day gifts than these bears. But it was all I had to offer, so HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY with love from me and the Fridge Magnet blog.

Those of you who keep a regular eye on this blog know that I am being stalked by Peeps, the soft, pillowy, marshmallowy candy.
That’s right, stalked by Peeps.
They keep appearing in my mailbox. Every time I think I have been frightened as much as possible, a new and different kind of Peeps appears.
This time, as you can see, they are green. And accompanied by giant tulip Peeps.