"I Don't Know If There'll Be Snow, But Have A Cup Of Cheer."

You are either on one side of the fence or the other on this one. Either you shoot it directly into your veins for a Christmas high or you would rather drink used bath water.

#14 of 31 Things I Love About Christmas: Egg Nog

I just took a shot directly out of the carton before writing this. For inspiration's sake.

From Black Friday through Christmas night, I probably have at least a small juice glass amount of Christmas in a cup. No egg nog is consumed after the Christmas night. The magic is gone after Christmas. This has always been a hard line rule and the same applies to apple cider and candy corn and Halloween. November 1st, it's all over. Egg nog is similar to another favorite poison of mine, Slim Jims, don't ask too many questions about what actually egg nog is. Just shut up and drink.

Like all good things in life, nog, licorice, the Grateful Dead. Either you love it or hate it. Some of us love all three.

My beloved Sara could take it or leave it, I on the other hand, was responsible for polishing off, nearly single-handedly about 5 quarts of the goodness last year and spend the next 11 months working it off.

I was first introduced to the magic in the early 90s, it was now defunct brand Sealtest, (their milk, ice cream and dairy products were a fixture in Western NY). I remember it tasted kinda weird, but oh so good. Paired with Christmas cookies? fuhgeddaboutit. (that's one word in NY). Later on it was Upstate Farms that was our nog of choice. Now in NC, it's pretty much whatever half-decent brew I can get my paws on.

I can't even describe the taste really. It's like drinking a sweet sweet milky ice cream, kinda sorta. I love the stuff, and I couldn't even describe it accurately to someone who just arrived on our planet and didn't know about such things. I couldn't even tell you why I like it. I just swished a little around in my mouth like a yuletide mouthwash, trying to describe it accurately, still coming up empty and half ashamed of what I just did.

I know the stuff is terrible for you, but comes Christmas time, it feels oh so right.