A few of may favorite things...

include Thanksgiving and Christmas. (There you go boo, you gotta title). There is something about Thanksgiving and Christmas that makes me happy. It's probably a combination of a lot of things. Getting to cook all kinds of interesting things (my sister gets her own personal menu when she comes home), the challenge of cooking for big groups since my parents usually have a holiday party, getting to decorate the house, and generally spending time with family and friends. I have great memories of going to Albuquerque Country Club and seeing the entire lit up in luminaries. Here's a recommendation for you, rent a limo and take some champagne. That is totally awesome!!!!

My mother likes to decorate the house by Thanksgiving. A lot of people might say that is too early but it isn't like we are decorating the outside yet. That will come a bit later. The inside of the house is fair game though and why not? If my mothers like to have some Christmas trees all lit up like the 4th of July then dammit she should have it. Isn't that the holiday spirit?

Nonetheless, another thing I really like about this time of the year are the Christmas brews. I like Oktoberfest brews a bit and don't much care for summer brews. Christmas brews are the highlight of the year. Over the past weekend and into this week I've had the opportunity to sample 5 such beers. For fun I'll post some pictures and reviews of those beers.

The five beers coming this week will be: Abita Christmas Ale, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, Samuel Adams Winter Lager, Anchor Steam Christmas Ale, and St. Arnold's Christmas Ale. If you haven't tried Abita Turbodog by all means do it, if you like a dark ale with chocolate overtones. I've been drinking Turbo Dog for over 10 years now. It's great stuff, and many stories can be told about the old "hand grenade" (props to El Guapo, "the Drake", the Skipper and Lil' Buddy for the awesome NOLA trip). Anchor Steam is a great brew from San Francisco and I highly recommend their ale. I like Sam Adams Boston Lager though it isn't my first choice. I'm been known to drink some of their cherry wheat as well. But their winter lager is normally high class. Fond memories of when the first and only Bennigan's opened in Las Cruces and my roommate (El Guapo) and I were trying to pay Bennigan's a lot o' money errrrrrrrr I mean complete their around the world contest. Basically you had to sample 100 beers and you got a mug and yer name on a plaque. My roommate and I were the first two people to do it. Anyways, during the winter on Friday's we would happy hour there with a big group (it was the happening place)and the mood of the night was always determined by one question. That question was "Will Hilty order a Sam Adams Winter Lager?" Now remember back then in '95 their winter lager was on tap and about 9 percent alcohol. So if Hilty ordered one of those a good time was to be had by all. Normally, I don't like Sierra Nevada but their celebration ale is normally the exception. Finally, from my days in Houston is Saint Arnold's. Great stuff if you are ever in Texas I highly recommend it.

Ok, on w/ the show.