This is a story about a recently completed holiday adventure.

I know! I hear some of us screaming “The holidays are finished — leave them.” However, since tomorrow, Jan. 5 is actually the 12th day of Christmas, I feel it’s fair for one final holiday recollection.

For over four days, our family gathered in a house located by Lake of the Isle in Minneapolis to celebrate Christmas. Our time together was filled with voices, good food, thoughtful gifts, laughter, outstanding beverages, enjoyment and dancing! Let me explain…

As much as I love seeing our family physically together, I really enjoy listening to them talk and laugh together. At one point, I was in the kitchen refilling my glass with Armand De Brignac (Brut) champagne and as I was sipping the bright and bubbly tasting drink, I leaned against the counter and listened to the voices of our maturing and growing family.

We don’t get together nearly enough and when we do gather, it’s such a pleasure to stand away from them and just listen — especially with such a fine Champagne in hand!  It’s nice to hear how their voices have matured but, yet, are the same as when they were young. They’re still our little kids — they’ll love that statement!

Everyone contributed to the meals — cookies, casseroles and all sorts of vegetables, breads and delicious treats. Our traditional Christmas Eve family dinner is a pork sausage wild rice dish served with cranberries and green peas. As good as these items are, it’s always proper to pair them with a fine wine and this year a bottle of Mark West Pinot Noir joined us. Its medium bodied fruity lusciousness paired perfectly with everything on the table. As for dessert, each person had their pick of over 12 different cookies to go along with ice cream.  Total over indulgence — speaking personally, of course!

The gifts that were exchanged were really useful and some of them were consumable — the kind of gift I favor. One such gift that came to me in two vials (yes, vials — they’re encased in wooden signature boxes) was a 1967 vintage Single Harvest Porto from Taylor Fladgate.  The reason for the vials? At almost $300 a bottle, the vials were just fine, thank you! I wonder what it would taste like if it were to age another 50 years — maybe I’ll taste one vial now and let the other one age for, who knows how long?

Along with the gifts, there was a lot of laughter caused by smart talk and actions. A gift of decades-old baby pictures brought forth a lot of discussion about heritage while we drank our Dark and Stormy cocktail — a drink featuring another one of my gifts, Cruzan Single Barrel Rum. The cocktail consists of dark rum, ginger beer and is garnished with a slice of lime. The humorous discussion spawned by the baby pictures was priceless and “paired” nicely with the ominous sounding Dark and Stormy.

Before long, the long awaited event (at least for me!) arrived — the opening of a 2005 vintage Spring Mountain Elivette Bordeaux style red wine. Spring Mountain Vineyard produces some of the best wines in the country and this bottle was no exception. Its aroma was softly strawberry, its medium chocolate and caramel taste lasted long into the finish and its tannins gently vanished at the end. One of the most interesting, taste-filled and satisfying wines I’ve ever tasted. It will not be forgotten.

And then, there was the dancing. Believe me, I’m not a dancer but at one moment in time, I was in the kitchen with two of our sons, our daughter and her 2-year-old son. There was some heavy beat music playing in the background and holding her son, she began to dance with him.  His laughter was so appealing that she passed the boy to one of her brothers who danced with him for a bit, then he passed the boy to the other brother and they danced for a bit and then, I got him. We danced and his squealing laughter was contagious. Dancing in the kitchen — a memory that will last a lifetime.

In a last nod to the holiday season, I must include a great beer that appeared before us. It was a dry hopped Belgian style ale called À Tout Le Monde from Unibroue Brewery of Chambly, Canada. There’s a lot to talk about with this ale but that’s grist for another day. Let’s only say it was just what I expected it to be — smoothly drinkable and totally enjoyable.

Our time together was a learning experience for me.  This family of ours keeps teaching me more and more about life — it’s great, isn’t it?

Next week, if it says extra dry, why is it sweet?

As always, eat and drink in moderation but laugh with reckless abandon.

Cheers!