Red Cups and Coffee With My Dad - November 07, 2026

The little holiday red cups are back, and all of a sudden I’m thinking about getting coffee with my dad. I’m sitting in a grocery store parking lot in the North Carolina mountains, in an out-of-control amount of sunshine, and thinking about the little things I wish I’d kept. A quick invitation, too. My Kaigi is November 14 . Come spend three hours with me looking back at your year and planting a few seeds for the next one. Use NAPODPOMO for 50% off. ----------------- I’m sitting in the car in the grocery store parking lot. It’s about 9 a.m. There is something so amazing about coming to this grocery store where I live, because it is nestled, literally, in the mountains of North Carolina. My husband always calls it the most beautiful grocery store in the world, because you really, you come in here and you’re just in awe. Not because the grocery store is any different, but because it is just surrounded by beauty. And the beauty that is here right now, with the trees and all the things. It’s a lovely day. So much sunshine. It’s out of control. Oh, so I came in this morning. I walk in, and of course there’s a Starbucks, like, right in the middle of—right when you open the doors, there’s a Starbucks. But y’all, the red cups are back. The little holiday red cups. And I know there’s all of the things, right? There’s all of the things that we know about Starbucks. And you have to understand that I’m a—I really do absolutely adore coffee, especially good coffee. I’m a little bit of a coffee, a little bit of a coffee snob. Although I’m also equally as excited to go get gas station coffee with the little creamer things with the flavors on it, because it’s so few and far between in my house—in my, you know, in my life—that it kind of brings back some memories. Not that I would have it all the time, but it’s like, “Oh yeah, I remember this,” right? It just hits different. But these red cups, it’s that also. And even though I will—especially living where I live, the area that I live is Asheville, North Carolina, and that is the place where local is king. Local is the majesty. Local is the thing you do. In fact, there is probably—I could count, at least I can think of two Starbucks in the city. I’m sure that there’s more, but they are not… It’s a different type of vibe in this town. There are many local, amazing coffee shops in Asheville, by the way. That said, I’m coming back to the red cups because they are extraordinarily meaningful to me. And not because of the coffee itself, but because of the memories of it all. I started to go to Starbucks, I think, or started to be a little bit more aware of going out to get coffee after I left home to go to college, to the university. Obviously, I was gone for the first time, away from my house, and I would always come back for the holidays. And one of the rituals that I used to have was going to get coffee with my dad. Good Lord, I didn’t think I was gonna get so emotional about it. This is where I cried a little. It was my favorite thing. I got a chance to talk with him, and we would catch up. It was like he was talking to me like I was an adult for the very first time. Obviously, I’m always gonna be his little girl. But it was the first time we got to… I don’t know. There are no words to say how special it is for me to go get coffee with my dad. We always went to Starbucks because it was so close to the house where they live. And the red cups always brought that back. And even without red cups, even without red cups, we go to Starbucks and we sit down and we catch up. It’s the memory. It’s the story. It’s the life in those little things that just makes me so happy to remember. So y’all, the red cups are here. And there’s another thing I wish I would