Christmas Stories

[mark fleetwood]

What's your best story about Xmas and bourbon? An unexpected gift, a great Xmas eve night of flights, grandpa spiking grandma's egg nog (grandma revealing grandpa wasn't your dad's dad).

I've only been at it 5 years so I don't have much, but this. Boss once gave me MM as a gift... two days after telling me I was laid off Dec 31.

[ramblinman]

I guess I've got a good enough one to share as of yesterday. A coworker/friend that I'm about to start a new business with got back from a trip to Japan yesterday and dropped by with a bottle of Blantons Straight From The Barrel for me. I in turn had picked up a bottle of Angels Envy Rum Finished stuff for him as a thank you for some work he sent my consulting business during the last year.

We of course immediately popped the cork on both and toasted to the past year and the future. Both mighty fine pours.

Edited December 22, 2014 by ramblinman

[MauiSon]

One picture worth . . .

Edited December 22, 2014 by MauiSon

[jvd99]

We call it the Great Smoke Out. I'm always responsible for bringing the booze to the family Christmas party which includes a couple bottles of bourbon, mixers, beer, wine etc. After I've had a few bourbons, I was asked to smear some butter on the top of the beef tenderloin. I'm no Bobby Flay and a little tuned up, so I liberally applied the butter. The tenderloin goes into the oven, mind you its a 35 year old electric oven in my parent's house. After like an hour and a half, we figure out only one of the electric coils was working and the tenderloin was not cooking at all. During that time, the bourbon & other libations were flowing freely. After preheating the other oven and sticking the beef in there, more time has passed and more drink went down the gullet. When it finally started cooking, the slathering of butter I put on started burning and created a massive billow of smoke setting off smoke detectors and flowing throughout the house. By now, many of us (mostly the guys) were stupid drunk, running around opening windows, ripping up cardboard boxes and trying to fan the smoke out the windows. The culmination of events left us all literally on the ground cracking up. My mom re-tells that story every year and always reminds me that she went into another room and told Mrs. jvd99 that I was drunk and hysterically laughing on the kitchen floor, and all my wife said was "isn't he cute?, don't worry I'll be driving him home." I've never lived that down and never will.

[TunnelTiger]

Fantastic story and read jvd99. Thanks for sharing.

[PaulO]

Back in the early '90s, out of the blue a friend gave me a bottle of S-W Old Fitzgerald 12 year old. Someone in a store had told him it was really good. Back then, I didn't know much about the finer things in life. Down the hatch it went, shot by shot. We treated it just like Early Times. I could barely tell the difference.

[The Black Tot]

and all my wife said was "isn't he cute?, don't worry I'll be driving him home."

That's a good woman right there, jvd99!

[mark fleetwood]

We call it the Great Smoke Out. I'm always responsible for bringing the booze to the family Christmas party which includes a couple bottles of bourbon, mixers, beer, wine etc. After I've had a few bourbons, I was asked to smear some butter on the top of the beef tenderloin. I'm no Bobby Flay and a little tuned up, so I liberally applied the butter. The tenderloin goes into the oven, mind you its a 35 year old electric oven in my parent's house. After like an hour and a half, we figure out only one of the electric coils was working and the tenderloin was not cooking at all. During that time, the bourbon & other libations were flowing freely. After preheating the other oven and sticking the beef in there, more time has passed and more drink went down the gullet. When it finally started cooking, the slathering of butter I put on started burning and created a massive billow of smoke setting off smoke detectors and flowing throughout the house. By now, many of us (mostly the guys) were stupid drunk, running around opening windows, ripping up cardboard boxes and trying to fan the smoke out the windows. The culmination of events left us all literally on the ground cracking up. My mom re-tells that story every year and always reminds me that she went into another room and told Mrs. jvd99 that I was drunk and hysterically laughing on the kitchen floor, and all my wife said was "isn't he cute?, don't worry I'll be driving him home." I've never lived that down and never will.

Alas, the most important question (assuming you can recall): how'd the tenderloin turn out?

[clingman71]

My wife and I eat lunch and visit the local bottle shop on our lunch hour every Friday. A few years ago, I was walking the whiskey aisle while my wife was talking to the craft beer guy. I spot a bottle of JPS18 #13 on the shelf. I am kind of a numbers dork and 13 is my employee number, so I took this as a sign. But, the price tag worried me with wifey there as well. Unbeknownst to me, as soon as we left my wife texted them to pull the JPS and hold for her. After stewing about not buying it all afternoon, she tells me to go pick it up after work, of course it was no longer there. I spent the next few days pissed at myself for not pulling the trigger only to unwrap that beauty Christmas morning.

[The Black Tot]

That's a good one, clingman! I love that she made you go in and suffer the disappointment, just to sweeten the deal! What a great sense of humor.

[fishnbowljoe]

My wife and I, and my wife's sister and her husband, had a quiet Xmas Eve get together at her parents house last night. Stories of Xmas past were brought up. The following story was brought up, and I just had to share it.

Let me preface this story by saying that my FIL and I both love the movie "A Christmas Story". Eleven years ago, we had to postpone our family Xmas for a couple of weeks. Long story short, my FIL had quadruple bypass surgery, and we didn't want anything to interfere with his recovery. Our family was at the point then, that we really didn't exchange gifts between ourselves anymore. Gifts were mainly for our kids, and great nieces and nephews. (No grandkids here yet) Well, I/we kind of bucked the trend that year. My wife and I bought my FIL the DVD of "A Christmas Story". We just so happened to find a working, downsized replica of the "leg lamp" from the movie too. :cool: We just had to get it. So, when we finally got together to celebrate our Xmas, we presented my FIL with the DVD. He kinda half smiled and just shook his head. Then came the leg lamp.:bigeyes: He laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes. He absolutely loved it. I'm sure glad they fixed his heart a few weeks before.

FWIW, the leg lamp is still around. However, my MIL won't let him keep it out on display anymore.

Cheers! Joe

[TunnelTiger]

great story Joe, Mrs TT and I have watched that movie and a Christmas Vacation every year since they were released. just a tradition with us.

[cas]

When I was 7 or 8 years old (early 1960s) someone gave my dad a bottle of old granddad in a nice decanter type bottle. It was on the living room table near the Christmas tree and I picked it up by the stopper and asked what's this? The stopper came out and the bottle landed on the floor, spilling most of the contents on the carpet. My mom told that story for years and by the time I was in my early 20s my dad had started talking to me again...

Craig

[flahute]

A bit of a melancholy story.....last year was my first Christmas as a true "enthusiast" of bourbon. In the month prior to the big day, I had managed to acquire a Lot B and and PVW 15 and had decided to save them for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Over the next month, our favorite cat who was 17 yrs old took a downward turn and we had to make the tough decision to put him down the day after Christmas. It made for a very sad holiday. During this time, my wife encouraged me to still pull out the special new bottles and open them up. I did, but the joy and fun was stripped from the experience inasmuch as I really enjoyed the bourbons. A year later, and our other cat (the first one's litter mate) started exhibiting the same symptoms and we thought we were headed down the same road and that another Christmas would be ruined. Well, we managed to stabilize her health and will have her around for a while yet, and I still have the last few pours from those same bottles, so I'm repeating the Christmas Eve and Day pours this year with the same bourbons and toasting her health and marking a joyous occasion.

[Tony Santana]

Whenever I see "A Christmas Story" and the mom "accidentally" breaking the leg lamp, it reminds me of my parents. My dad, not a whiskey drinker but definitely a fan of beer, had a beer mug collection. I'm sure he had at least 50 of them, and probably more than that. One of them had a naked lady as its handle. I can't ever remember my mother breaking a glass/mug/plate/bowl when washing dishes, with the exception of the naked lady-handled beer mug. Funny how that happened.