i wish every member of the forum Happy Holidays and a safe New Year. I know many, like me, are very busy this time of year…it is what we do. I expect to be with family, in front of a warm fire, and a toddy in my hand in a few weeks. After the craziness of the season, what could be better ?!!
I expect to be huddled in bed with the covers pulled over my head in chronic back pain wondering how the heck I’m going to pay for everything and whether a very large life insurance policy is the answer. But I will be drunk because nothing is keeping me on a diet over those two weeks.
Cheers 
Fred, I absolutely understand. I hope to be post-surgery when I drink that toddy, against Doctor’s orders. 
I love the toddy thing though. We lean towards mead over wine. A local distillery makes a caramel flavored rum that we may play with as well. My wedding anniversary happens just after New Years and we always indulge in a bottle of Viking Blod for that (which is a hopped mead, which I think makes it a “field beer” or something like that) .
My Son got me into “specially” beers, but usually, when I do have a taste, it is a cheaper one. Around here a “toddy” could equate a warm bottle of ripple hidden in your pants.
I always heard the two worst gigs in music are New Year’s Eve and Memphis. 
Actually, the worst gig is New Years Eve IN Memphis. 
In the nether regions of North East Pennsylvania, the “coal crackers” make Boilo. Typically, it has apple cider, oranges, raisins, spices, etc. It’s left to cook for a while, strained, and then the alcohol is added “off the stove.”
I’m thinking many a house has burned down forgetting that final part of the equation.
Rick
That sounds good. Love spiced cider.
Ok. Now I want to try Mead and Boilo. Just trying to decipher whose “nether regions” Boilo is extracted from. 
And don’t let anyone lie to you, Four Queens is cheap boilo, the real stuff uses shine.
And Apple Pie is the best flavor 
Most of the people that we’ve turned onto Viking Blod don’t really dig its… intensity. here are some sweeter, more traditional meads like Chaucer’s that might be closer to the toddy tradition. Of course, you might love the Dankse Mjod too.
I’ve had very intensive shine, and some homemade Arkansas drain cleaner, so I am no stranger to risking poison. I figure a toddy will just have to do tho. I usually do a shot of peppermint schnapps before a show, if available. Learned years ago how it clears, and warms the throat before a night thrashing the vocal chords. Also relieves anxiety! 
Happy Crimbo
Hope Fred gets better!
After a very hard year in work, I am looking forward to relaxing and making some music (and hopefully making some inroads to my one man EM show).
I’m now starting to lay in the poison, starting with this beauty from Islay in the Inner Hebrides
Bunnahabhain — means ‘mouth of the river’ in Gaelic - is not a heavily peated malt – it embodies the more gentle side of Islay, making it an approachable dram. The nose is fresh and aromatic, and the palate is light with fruit and nuts.
I was not a whisky drinker (thought I didn’t like it) until one heavy night, around 1999, whilst in the Hebrides on a work trip. Our small hotel had two rows of optics of whiskies from the islands, and somebody insisted we all finished off the night with whisky. I said “no, as I hate the stuff”, and said person thrust a dram of this in front of me and insisted I try it. Since then I’ve been hooked on “proper” single malts! Straight. No Ice, No Water.
Wine and Port order is next! I subscribe to the theory that I do not want to abstain from what I enjoy, just so that I get the pleasure of another five years in a retirement home, not knowing who I am! And if you can’t let go at Christmas, when can you?!
That is a much fancier package than a Ripple package. Ripple is in a plain brown bag.
I like good single malts, Scotch or Irish.
I got into Brandy a few years ago. A girl I was dating at the time loved it, so…
(Double Entendre?)
Given the amount of time I spend in Hebrides, Irish has never been an option. And of course you now have the Welsh Whisky revival with distilleries such as Penderyn
If whisky makes you frisky, Brandy makes you…? 
I’m up for some Welsh whiskey, sure