Christmas booze and gear hauls?

[Prediction? Pain.]

Seems like we did this last year and had some fun with it.

Didn't get any trail gear this year, though I don't really need any at this point (other than a new left knee . . . .). On the grilling/cooking front, I got a 14" wooden pizza peel for the green egg that I've eyeing for awhile and a Joule sous vide device. Stoked about trying both of those out.

For the booze . . . .

First, the advent calendar mini-bottles.





So far I've had the Chivas 12 year, the Bushmills, and Rock 'n Rye. I rarely drink Bushmills and was reminded of why, but the other two were pleasant surprises. The Chivas seemed very much to be a nice, middle-of-the-road scotch that would be worth having again sometime (I'm very much a scotch novice) and the Rock 'n Rye was a surprisingly good old fashioned in a can. In fact, I'd say the Rock 'n Rye is on par with the average old fashioned that I can get at local bars. Not the best, but certainly better than the worst.

Especially excited about the Whistlepig 10 Year Rye and the Jonnie Walker Blue Label. The rest of them (other than the Cooper's Craft) are things that I've had before.

And then there were these two:





So the JD Single Barrel is always nice (think the same family member gave me a bottle last year). But the Laphroaig 10 Year Cask Strength was completely unexpected. Again, I'm a scotch novice. In my very, very limited dabbling, I've only found one distillery whose stuff has stuck with me, and that one's a Lowland producer that makes classic, fairly user-friendly whisky. (Auchentoshan. I've dug on both the youngish American Oak single malt and the 12-year single malt. The next steps up are out of my price range.)

Laphroaig, on the other hand, is at the deep, deep end of the pool that I've only glanced at from a distance. I've had a glass or two of Laphroaig's Quarter Cask and found it interesting but pretty heavy on the smoke. And now here I am with the distillery's unfiltered, un-cut, 116 proof cask strength behemoth to wrap my head around. I mean, the back of the bottle recommends cutting the whisky with water with a ratio of 1 part booze to 2 parts water. WTF?!

Had maybe 1/3 of an ounce last night without water. It was like a peat soaked smoke bomb went off inside my mouth, coating every surface with a briney, smokey elixir from the bowels of the earth.

Surprisingly, it wasn't a total turnoff. Not at all what I'd drink all the time. But something I'm interested in tackling bit by bit.

Ok, that's way more rambling than I intended. Sorry.

What'd everyone else nab?

[BeastMan]

Nice haul man.

For booze I got a bottle of Muscadine Wine, bottle of Angel’s Envy bourbon, and a bottle of Gentleman Jack.

Outdoor stuff I got a new Stradic spinning reel, a Lowrance elite ti 5, and assorted gift cards

[Howboutdemdogs]

On the outdoor front, I got a new trail cam.

On the MSU front, I got the large Battle Bell.....shit it is loud,,,,I love it!

On the booze front, my neighbor gave me a fifth of Birddog Select,,,very impressed with this Bourbon. So very smooth.

The rest of the haul was the standard Christmas items.

[reno hightower]

MSU front--- military appreciation jersey

Booze---willett family reserve small batch. Elijah craig single barrel18 year

[Howboutdemdogs]

Awesome Reno! Was that from this year’s A&M game?

[Howboutdemdogs]

Beast, where did the Muscadine Wine come from? We bought a couple of muscadine juices from the Cheese Store, and we are looking for a few bottles of muscadine wine.

[reno hightower]

Awesome Reno! Was that from this year?s A&M game?

Yes sir. Have to give the wife props on that one.

[Howboutdemdogs]

The coolest Military Jersey to date.

[BeastMan]

Beast, where did the Muscadine Wine come from? We bought a couple of muscadine juices from the Cheese Store, and we are looking for a few bottles of muscadine wine.

A coworker got it for me. No idea where but he said he’s had it and it’s good

[Howboutdemdogs]

Thanks!!!!! I’ll see if our little liquor store carries it.

[BeastMan]

Ok so this is kinda Christmas plus birthday but I already told y’all about the Lowrance unit but I just bought everything else I needed to install it including a yak attack cell block, yak attack switchblade transducer arm, yak attack load n load Lowrance mount, 12v battery/charger, and a berly Pro Lowrance sun visor.

I decided to do the cell block mount because I could in the near future switch transducers from the down scan to the total scan and this setup would allow that transition easily. Whereas if I did a through hull (which I really wanted to do), I would have totally had to reconfigure if I upgrade to the total scan. Plus if I ever change my mind I can easily internally wire and clean up my gear trac with minimal new hardware.

My setup will end up looking kinda like this

[SpeckleDawg]

Outdoor: New knee boots, a couple nice shirts for hunting and an Ego net for the kayak and wade fishing.

Booze: Bottle of Woodford