Tone Parsons

Christmas at Casa de Tone was good this year.

The kids seemed more than pleased with what came under the tree (those little bastards have gotten expensive as they’ve gotten older), and my wife was happy with the diamond “Journey” necklace that Santa delivered. Me… I’m totally thrilled with the JVC surround sound system that we got each other.

Christmas dinner as amazingly good. The turkey and stuffing were pure perfection!

My sister and brother-in-law came over for games and such. My sister brought her famous hot buttered rum mix (which tastes sooooo good, but is horribly bad for you). Here’s the recipe (to the best of my memory):

• 1/2 gallon of ice cream (the cheap kind they sell in a box)
• 1 pound of butter, (softened to room temperature)
• 1 pound of powdered sugar
• 1 pound of brown sugar (light brown)
• 1 tablespoon ground cloves
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

In a large plastic container (with a lid), slow melt the ice cream until it’s very soft, add the softened butter to ice cream. Add brown sugar, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg slowly while mixing until everything is thoroughly blended. Chill the mix in the refrigerator until it’s ready to be served.

To serve: Boil some water. Fill a mug about 1/4 the way with butter rum mix, add a shot or two of dark spiced rum (I like Meyer’s), and fill with hot water. Stir until the rum mix is dissolved (it will be foamy on top).Enjoy in large quantities.

You can also prepare this without the rum for kids or people who don’t drink. It’s still very, VERY tasty (my kids love it!)

After consuming a few of the coveted hot buttered rum beverages, we played a DVD video trivia game that my sister brought over. It was all ’80’s trivia, some read from cards, others from the DVD (they show you a video clip and then you have to guess either the band name or the song title). I’m a huge 80’s fan and this was still very challenging for me.

Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling so hot (damn you, hot buttered rum mix!!), so we just kicked back and took it easy. I napped a lot and we watched the Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest movie. If you haven’t seen this yet, I’ll not spoil it for you, but I will say the following: the special effects are very, VERY good, and it totally sets you up for at least one more movie.

And that’s about it for the big holiday wrap-up. How was your Christmas?