Of all the Christmas traditions my family has, I think the one I love the most is that Mom always makes stockings for us. When we were growing up it was usually candy, an orange, a toothbrush, maybe a little toy. As we got older there were variations on the theme – small umbrellas, different candies, other useful things. Eventually, it dwindled down to just candy, until one year when I was in graduate school, Mom decided since my brother and I were both now over 21, we were too old for candy and she was going to get us more adult stuff.
Miniature bottles of booze.
This year, knowing that I like bourbon and/or whiskey, I got 11 mini bottles in a variety of those two liquors. Including, I might add, some Knob Creek, which I’d been meaning to try as a variation on my favorite, Maker’s Mark.
So when you see these mini bottles show up on my liquor table at a party, now you know why.
But this is still definitely my favorite tradition.