It’s the fifteenth of December.  I am full of shame as my Christmas tree has yet to make it’s debut in my living room.  This is not like me.  Typically, I cannot hold off past the first week of November.  I love trees, but there’s something about the lights that induce warm fuzziness in my soul.  Last night I decided to induce artificial warm fuzziness via alcohol.  It was not enough for me to have a cocktail, I had to make it Christmassy.  I cannot stomach alcoholic beverages with dairy, so eggnog was automatically out.  As I was not in the mood for a beer I decided to skip winter brews.  Finally I settled on the glory I’d been craving for nine and a half months.  Rum and Coke.

Rum and Coke doesn’t proclaim tinsel and holly.  What the spiced liqueur and soda concoction really says is “I’m in a cheap bar that still holds the smell of cigarettes even though smoking indoors has been illegal for seven years.”  I had a chore ahead of me if I was going to be able to claim my booze screamed red and green.

Well duh!  It’s the most wonderful time of the year to be a Coke product.  I found this 4-pack last night.  Coke has decided to shake it up this year and abandon their usual coke bottle shape and embrace the way the bottles appeared at some point before we were all born.

If my first/only google search is correct, this bottle shape debuted in 1899.  And while the beverage is 125 years old, this was the first bottle embossed with the Coca-Cola logo.  And I needed a bottle opener to get at it, which took way too long for me to find.

I had a bottle of Sailor Jerry’s Spiced Rum sitting around from the hot buttered rums Mr. Pilver enjoys. I had Christmas Coke bottles.  One more important thing was essential for the experience.

Christmas Straws!  Neon tubes sporting elves with pose-able arms, of course!  A mere dollar for a four pack was such a deal I should have bought twelve, one for each day of Christmas. 

The elf lost all his facial features as a result of the blinding flash of my high quality camera.  You should know he was smiling.  He loves rum and Coke.

I drank not one but two R&C’s last night.  And after my dry spell it was enough to result in table dancing and overall mayhem.  Actually my table is a bit small and I am sure I would have fallen off had I twirled atop it.  I did achieve warm fuzziness.  But, I still want a tree.