Cheese Samples and Debris

At Aldi a few weeks ago, Joy and I spotted a seasonal item that was right up our alley:

An advent calendar whose doors conceal a variety of cheeses to taste every day until Christmas!

I kept forgetting to bring it out at lunchtime though, so it finally made an appearance last week we had nine days' worth of cheese to cut up and sample.

I think that was actually more fun than trying a different flavor each day, because we could compare the different cheeses . . .

. . . and talk about which ones we liked best.

Sampling different cheeses was so much fun that I decided to visit a cheese shop in Concord (you know, the town next to Lexington) . . .

. . . and buy a variety of cheeses to try after dinner.  No one really liked the Swiss one, but the British poacher was fun, and we really liked the semi-soft French one (when I later called the shop to ask what the semi-soft French cheese was called, the guy said, "Um, we've got about fifty of those").  The really soft Brie at the bottom of the picture was kind of a bust because it oozed everywhere.  The kids nicknamed it "Death Brie" ("debris" for short).