Today's drink: Cider Rum Punch

Today's ingredients: spiced rum, amaretto, apple cider

Today's gadgets: beverage urn

Today's vocabulary: Bo Time

My brother-in-law, bless his heart*, has his holidays planned out for him from now until the end of time. He and his wife live within spitting distance of several of her family's households, so holidays are basically a day or three of hopscotch from one place to another to show off the grandbaby and eat (I could've said "eat and show off the grandbaby," but there's that whole English language ambiguity thing). Then, depending on his own family's plans, there could be another couple visits involved.

The wife, also of the same family as the brother-in-law, imposes no such social schedule on me, which is a not-insignificant part of why I connnnnVINCED her to say "yes." We pretty much wait to see if one of the nearby relatives is having a get-together (they often insist on hosting), and if not, we'll grab a fried turkey from Bojangles, do up the rest, and have a small (like, four people) gathering at our place. Actually, we get the Bo' turkey at Thanksgiving anyway just because it's awesome (and Popeye's is not, just so we're clear).

At parties and during drinking games, a "social" is basically where, during the course of events, some event occurs, some magic word/phrase is yelled, and everyone takes a drink at the same time. Whether or not you have to link arms, circle your head with the glass, or perform any number of other acts before, during, or after consumption depends on the crowd, the mood, and the (house) rules. Please note that this is different from, say, playing a drinking game based on a movie or sporting event, which is simply an excuse to get hammered (think about taking a shot every time a cat screams during Monty Python and the Holy Grail... nothing... nothing... nothing... CATS EVERYWHERE!... wake up with the credits rolling).

ANYwho, should you be gathering with folks in or out of the family, chances are that there's occasion for drinks, and unless everyone insists on beer, setting out a great cocktail or two is simply different, more interesting, and if nothing else, guilt-ridden for consumption since you did go out of your way to make it. Of course, the issues at hand are bulk production and satisfying a variety of tastes and preferences. The first item is easy: just scale up. The second item, well, you know your audience. As for Uncle Bob using the dinner table as a pulpit to spout off about the latest chain email he received? I got nothing.

P.S. For the record, I married into a great family. Let's face it, when you date someone, you date their family as well. I'll tell you about Champagne Sunday another time :)

* obligatory euphemism from "around here"

Cider Rum Punch

Credit/Blame the wife for this one. I'm not much of a cider guy, but with it being the holidays and all, chances are that you're going to run into some cider. Chances are also decent that someone has some spiced rum and amaretto lying around just begging to be consumed (especially if your get-togethers are Griswold-worthy). Nothing fancy about this one:

• 4 parts apple cider
• 2 parts spiced rum
• 1 part amaretto
• ice or heat (optional)
• garnish (optional) with apple slices and/or cinnamon sticks

I only mention "parts" here because this is a really easy, and perhaps necessary, recipe to scale up, depending on your attendance and need for some liquid encouragement. It can range from a single seven-ounce serving (one part equals one ounce) to a two-gallon beverage urn (sharing optional--see Ron Swanson and deviled eggs).

The original recipe (found somewhere randomly online) called for equal parts rum and amaretto, but that really seemed to mask the tartness of the cider. If you want something syrupy sweet, either use more amaretto or go cheaper and swap out the cider for apple juice. For our part here, we grabbed some kind of store-brand cider, still had some Disaronno on the shelf, and we're always looking for an excuse to have more Carolina Coast spiced rum. No cats were present, much less harmed, in the making of this cocktail.