Mission Accomplished

I realize that I am ever-so-slightly behind in my posts, but this Christmas season has completely taken over my schedule.  Tuesday evening had finally arrived and school was out for break.  Most schools in the area had Monday and Tuesday off, but not us.  No.  We had to eek out every last bit of energy we had.  Anyone who has kids of their own knows how crazy they get 2-3 days before Christmas, right?  Now imagine 300 of them in one building.  It gets interesting, let me tell you. 

Now that the craziness had ended, I figured it was a good time for a real Christmas cocktail with a not-so-Christmas kind of name.

Day 10

Lumber Jill
1 1/2 oz. Jim Beam
1/2 oz. Amaretto
3 oz. eggnog

This was a fabulous cocktail.  I really should have purchased low fat eggnog, because I would have had another one.  It was very creamy and smooth.  We both rated it a 9, but decided there would be no harm at all in adding just a bit more bourbon than the recipe called for. 

I was definitely in the partying spirit, so we decided that we would enjoy an icy, cold beer when we finished our Lumber Jills.  It was then that we decided to finally start paying attention to the Santa hat on the corner of the television.  I'm sure others saw it on Facebook like I did, but for those who didn't, it's a little drinking game that requires you to drink any time someone on tv is "wearing" the Santa hat.  As you can see in the picture below, it's pretty funny how it looks when someone is wearing it.  We learned pretty quickly that Law and Order is a good show for this game if you're really looking to tie one on.

 The next day was Christmas Eve, and  20 Main was featuring Maribyrd on the guitar for some Christmas songs from 4-7.  Maribyrd, Jean and Dave are some of our favorite people, so we decided that it would be a nice place to celebrate.  I had a few different ideas for the evening's Drifunkmas drink, but we still weren't sure what it would be right before we left.  Luckily my mom called and put me on the spot.  The phone rang just as we were headed out the door and it was my mother asking what the night's drink was.  Apparently she wanted to join in from a distance.  I listed the ingredients for a few of the drinks I had in mind, but there was only one that she had all of the ingredients for.

Day 11

Prison Bitch
1 oz. vodka
1 oz. amaretto
1 oz. triple sec
2 oz. cranberry juice
2 oz. orange juice

All I can say is YUM!  This is one of the best ones in a few years.  Initially it seems quite sweet, but eventually it mellows out.  I would highly recommend going a little lighter on the triple sec, because that stuff is just plain sweet.  Jess made these for us at 20, and it wasn't long before a couple others were giving it a try.

It ended up being a very pleasant evening, and Maribyrd did a great job as always.  If you've never listened to her sing, you really should.  On top of that, she is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.  She does a lot of solo acts, but she also has a band called Byrdgrass that is incredibly fun to listen to. 

There were plenty of laughs that night, especially after Lauren and Gar showed up.  Someone mentioned the word "gondola" and you could see Lauren's expression change.  Clearly we needed to do something about that.  We decided to pass around a napkin and try to come up with as many words as we could using the letters in the word "gondola".  Gar won for creativity with the word "nogload".  Not sure what it means, but he was able to use it in a sentence brilliantly.

The next day, of course, was Christmas.  The 12th day of Drifunkmas.  The bloody Mary was not the beverage of the day, but it was the beverage of the morning.  It was delicious.

Many folks stopped by on Christmas afternoon for some finger food and cocktails.  It was wonderful to see everyone and share some laughs.  By early evening, it was time to bust out the drink of the day.  I had gone down to Adirondack Spirits the day before and Joe recommended Barenjager.  It's a honey liqueur made by the same folks who make Jagermeister.  Now I am not a Jagermeister fan, but I thought a honey liqueur might be tasty.  I was dead wrong.  I thought it was nasty.  We all kind of made the same face when we tried it, but Jean was quick to state what it needed.  Spice!  I offered up the Sriracha and she squirted some in.  It actually made it better.  It looked awful, but it improved the taste.  We pretty much decided that the only way to truly enjoy this stuff would be to add it to something.  I was thinking tea myself, but who knows.  Either way, the final day of Drifunkmas was a bust.  How disappointing!

"Drifunkmas can't end this way," I thought to myself. 
"Go for a 13th night," Maribyrd suggested.
I was all in, so last night, on the Drifunkmas bonus night, we headed down to 20 for a new beverage.

Drifunkmas Bonus Night

The Fallen Froggie
.5 oz. Midori
.5 oz. Bailey's Irish Creme
splash of grenadine

Obviously this is a shot, and the picture on Pinterest has it looking like this:

Ours didn't quite look like that, and Sherry was apologetic about not pouring it over a spoon, but we truly didn't care.

By the look on Sherry's face, she didn't think it would taste good either.  Have no fear though, because Drifunkmas was saved!  It was quite delicious.  We decided that anything with Bailey's in it is generally delicious.




It has been a wonderful Drifunkmas, made even happier by all of those who joined in on the yearly tradition.  I think I'll try to be more organized about it next year, but then again, giving up control isn't necessarily a bad thing. 

Drifunkmas 2014 
Day 1:  Walk Me Down Sweet Jesus
Day 2:  Painkiller
Day 3:  North Country Common
Day 4:  Dirty Shirley
Day 5:  Eggnog Martini
Day 6:  20 Main's Lemon Drop Shot
Day 7:  Spiced Apple Margarita
Day 8:  The 1800
Day 9:  Gold Rush
Day 10: Lumber Jill
Day 11: Prison Bitch
Day 12: Barenjager
Bonus:  The Fallen Froggie