This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a family party celebrating my cousin's graduation. We do not get to see the extended family quite as much as we used to. Everyone has just gotten so busy. Some of us are in college, others have deeply involved professional lives, some of us have started building families of our own, heck just keeping up with my siblings can sometimes be a bit of an effort. Still it was great to see the whole gang again, and now that we are all of age, it was nice to enjoy a few drinks with everyone. I was surprised to survey the landscape of what everyone was drinking. How you drink after all can say a lot about a person.

We were at my Uncle Mike's so I was certain the wealth and variety of alcohol would be more than up to snuff, yet I was still spellbound when I walked into his liquor room. There was multiple bottles of everything. It made me wonder when the next time he could ever possibly need to purchase anything could be. There was a row of Chivas Regal with a thin collection of dust on it. A few already opened bottles of Jack Daniels Whiskey were to my left. I found several great single malt scotches hiding behind some nice, but not quite AS nice, single malt scotches. If the analogy did not seem so inappropriate I might say that I was like a kid in a candy store. More aptly I was an adult in a room full of liquor and it was all at my disposal.

Me and my cousins bonded more than we have since we were sharing blocks. One cousin sipped on Glenrothes Talisker, another enjoed a glass of Disaronno Amaretto. We were all different and yet the mixture of booze and good vibes reminded us that we shared a lineage and blood, not to mention a wealth of stories. We reminisced and it was a beautiful event, everyone agreed.

We made a promise to do this again soon. We were not going to wait for the next major event to get together and enjoy some spirits; we were going to take up the torch and party together more often. Now, I don't know if that will actually happen but that we were so into the idea of the time attests to how much fun we all had. The next day's Facebook comments and photos were a good reinforcement of the fun we had. I sincerely hope we hold up our plans. There is no replacement for family time.