Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

Hey-a everybody!

What a wild and crazy December it has been.

J and I have attempted a fairly low-key month, and failed miserably. It has been wonderful though.

The brewery launched two new beers this month. One was a short release (only 950 bottles total, 10 kegs), and the other was for their winter beer. The short release is now 100% gone (3 weeks later...), and the other is rockin' and rollin' throughout the city. The brewery has also received national accolades for the flagship beer! Of course, this means that J has been relatively busy to keep up with the increased demand. Hooray!

I've also been busy with work and taking care of family stuff. Nothing too terribly exciting there. :D

However, we did have our annual Christmas party, and it was a blast! Lots of good food, friends, wine/beer, and memories. Seriously, once I figure out pictures on this thing, there will be some up here.

This past weekend was especially nutty. Friday night was icy and rainy and gross: so we opted to stay in. Thank goodness for the little bit of sleep I got on Friday night! Saturday was spent in the wild world of Christmas Shopping. We usually do all our shopping online, but circumstances required we leave our glowing computer monitors and venture into the world. Stupid.
Then: Athenaeum concert at Amos' until 3AM. Yeah - have I mentioned that I'm too old for that? No? Okay. I am too old for a 3AM concert.
Sunday was football, more football, and then going to the Panthers/Vikings game in the evening. I have to tell you all about it because it was one of the best nights of my 20's (of course, getting engaged, married, and all that stuff is up there too).

First, we had tickets on the 30-yard line, 13 rows up. Yeah. CLOSE. (Squeal) They were given to us by a friend of mine who wasn't going to be able to make it to the game.
We arrived in uptown a little early, because we actually wanted to watch the pre-game warm ups and the like. I mean, Brett Farve in our stadium? Yeah - I want to see this. We walk into the bowl and have ourselves a sit - nestled in the middle of a crowd of Vikings fans. Wait, what? Oh- yeah, we're behind the visitor's bench. Crap. It looked like it was going to be a loooooooooooooong night. A few more Panther fans arrived during the next 30 minutes... so that was nice.
Then, the game happened. Not just any game though, and definitely not the stomping we were expecting to receive. The Panthers looked great. Defense was hitting hard, Offense was coordinated and finally looked like they were all on the same team. Heck, even the fans were in it to win it. We had nothing to play for: our playoff hopes were dashed the night before. But we were out for a W, and we got it. Not only that, but J and I were sitting in a hot bed of awesomeness. The cold never got to us, my voice never stung, and the Panthers never relented. I yelled on every down, and the crowd was responding. At one point, I yelled "Momma wants a first down!" A couple sitting a row in front of us responded with: "Give Momma her first down!" I taught a little girl (probably 5 years old) how to trash talk. She was a natural. There was also some pretty decent coffee at the stadium. Who would've thought?

Also, I love it when friends come into town for the holidays. It makes my heart happy. Especially when I can bring them to the Brewery :D

Happy Holidays everyone! We hope you and a very merry holiday with friends and family!