Once again I set up my advent calendar. I put random flavourings for my coffees the days I worked and random liquors the days I don’t. I made cocktails with some of them with ingredients I already have in our house. So it got a little creative this year. Here are the highlights:

December 3rd was Triple Sec. I made a Sidecar.

December 4th was Absinthe. I made Absinthe Sazerac.

December 5th was Bols. I made Blue Margarita.

December 6th was Kirsch. I made Farewell to Hemingway.

December 7th was Benedictine, and I made Benedictine Sour.

December 8th was Vermouth, and I made Classic Gibson Cocktail

For this I used the penguin cocktail shaker. I had purchased this for my grandfather for Christmas in the 1990s from Restoration Hardware. I acquired it after he had passed and noticed this paper inside of it. I hope he liked it.

December 11 was Cointreau, and I made a Cointreau Sunset. I used the rolling pin to crush the ice cubes folded in a towel.

I packed to go to New York while I sipped on it.

Things got a little complicated due to the trip as I could not pack my liquid advent calendar with me. So I had a giant Jim Beam bourbon old fashioned at SeaTac while waiting for our delayed flight. This was the only size they had.

I had Cognac mixed with ice and orange bitters that I brought with me the next night in Manhattan. We watched Me, Myself and Irene that evening.

And I mixed gin with Beet and Lemon Shrub I purchased at Russ and Daughter’s the last night we were there. We watched Sunday Night Football that evening.

Back home December 17 was Midori so I had Midori Margarita.

December 19th is rum. So I used it to make my grandfather’s eggnog.

I watched National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation will sipping on this eggnog.

On December 20th it was brandy. I wanted to try a brandy and ginger drink from one of my favorite blogs. Tom has bought some ginger beer from New Zealand so I used that.

December 22 was Snaps. I sipped in this while I made Kransekake.