I’ll never forget the look on Haus Meister’s face when he opened the refrigerator in the beginning of December, 2003. We had yet to celebrate our first married Christmas, and I blithely picked up some egg nog at the grocery store, not realizing that in his family they made a nice ritual of enjoying eggnog for the first time on Christmas Eve. However, Haus Meister had always wanted to enjoy eggnog a little more often so when I asked if it was okay that I had bought some, he grinned and said, “Of course!”  I think we scandalized his family at first, but we’ve done a good job over the last nine years incorporating family traditions and creating some of our own that our dropping the eggnog one is merely winked at by the other relatives. 😉

Fast forward to yesterday. I picked up some eggnog at the store mainly because I was getting a dinner ready for a family from church who had recently welcomed a new son to their family, a son with a name rather associated with Christmas and starts with N. 😉 I thought I’d add some yuletide cheer to their basket, and I also knew it would be futile to get nog and not have some for my crew. I put our bottle in the upstairs fridge and the other one in the downstairs’ one. I had to go down into the garage and secure some boxes that had arrived while I was out lest the kiddos sneak into them, and as I climbed back upstairs I was met at the top by Rascal, who was just finishing a large cup of a rather thick milk-like drink.

“What was THAT?!” He grinned. “It’s GOOD!”

I gaped like a fish. I had expected to bring it out for Haus Meister after dinner and then give some to the kids. I hadn’t expected the Refrigerator Raiders to begin work quite so soon.

But now it has begun, and now I pretty much have to lock up the eggnog. “I’m thirsty; can I have some eggnog?” is one of the first things I heard this morning.

“No, it’s a special drink. We have it after dinner.”

Pout.

Good thing it wasn’t the Christian Brothers variety. 😉