Monthly Archives: December 2003

Family

Merry Christmas 2003

Allison and I by the Christmas Tree

Well, it is Christmas time again. Last night Allison and I went to my sister Tara’s house for dinner and gift exchange with her and her husband Erik. My Grandfather Rick was there and so was my Uncle Jim. My sister Shelby and my mother and father also were in attendance. And Erik’s parents Bonnie and Howard also came.

We had a very fun night with lots of laughs and some fantastic presents that suited everyone’s interests. Like The Sex Life of Plants, a book that Tara received from Bonnie and Howard. That and another book called The Bastard’s name was Bristow. They were big hits.

eBay is a wonderful thing and can help you find all sorts of great gifts. Just ask Allison, she received a couple of vintage sixties Pyrex bowls with Amish People on them from her friend, Peg.

Last night Allison and I returned home and exchanged gifts with my parents. Then we came upstairs and exchanged our gifts together. Allison is all decked out with AB gear for the kitchen. Alton Brown, for those of you who are not on the Good Eats bandwagon yet. He’s a great entertainer and we met him.

Later this morning we are off to see the Allison’s parents and exchange gifts with them and enjoy the baking wonders that Allison slaved over yesterday. She made THREE PIES! That’s a lot of pies. I know, I wash the dishes around here. Anyway from us to you, Merry Christmas.

Travel

BEER! Always a choice Christmas Gift

Yuengling Brewery Sign

Merry Christmas Eve everyone. Beer, is there anything more festive than beer during the holidays. Especially good beer. Which brings us to Yuengling Lager. Yuengling is the official beer on tap almost all over Pennsylvania. Go into any bar in PA and ask for a Lager and most often you will be handed a Yuengling. Yuengling is pronounced Ying Ling or [Lah Grr] unless you didn’t know.

Allison introduced me to Yuengling. And being a person who enjoys beer, I understood the obsession with Yuengling. Every trip that we take to Susquehanna University (Susquehanna University will be known as SU for the rest of this post) we pick up a case or two to bring home.

One trip we even went to the Brewery and took a tour. That was a very fun trip and an interesting learning experience. Yuengling Brewery is not very technologically advanced, you can actually take a beer of the line. There is a high school kid who is watching over the group to prevent this from happening. When you are on the tour you pretty much see it as down and dirty as it gets, from the mash containers to the loading dock and bottling line it’s totally raw. And then at the end of the tour your get FREE BEER! Yes, I know this is a common occurrence for many brewery tours but we got a decent glass of beer not some wussy sip from a thimble. What a great tour. If you are ever in Pottsville, Pennsylvania this is one stop you can’t miss.