It's time for a new Christmas story.

Around this time of year you hear many stories....Some involve Dasher, and Dancer, and Prancer and Vixon. Other stories speak of Frosty the Snowman. And then there’s Santa Clause, the jolliest man of them all. But today, I think it’s time a different Christmas story is told. One of joy, one of struggle, but in the end there is comfort and peace. I call it the Eggnog story.

It all starts in place called Oregon. You see, one Christmas a few years ago, there was a teenager. The teenager liked to run; he also liked to drink eggnog. And as in any good Christmas tale, an idea was born. Now we’re not just talking about any ole’ idea here. We’re talking about an idea that revolutionizes runners, an idea more beautiful than Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel or possibly even Michael Jordan’s dunk from the foul line….We’re talking about the Eggnog 400.

Eggnog is powerful like a drug but delicious like pie. Eggnog is smooth like bacon and thicker than maple syrup on a Belgium Waffle.

It’s 10 am, Saturday morn. Christmas is two weeks away. Runners swarm the track. They gather around a table smothered with gallons of Eggnog, each takes a cup filled with 8 ounces of rich sugary bliss. They swig. They line up. They scream “EGGNOG!!!” and then they run a lap under 90 seconds, a breezy 6-minute mile pace. Finish your lap, fill your cup, drink it up, it’s time to run again. To win drink the most and run the longest, without throwing up. Once you lose it you’re out.

Christmas is a time of miracles, and the Eggnog 400 is no exception. This year, those that raced witnessed something of Eggnog History.

Eight ounces short of having drunk a gallon of eggnog, he jogged across the line, cup in hand. One more cup left. He refilled, he looked down. He began to drink. Maybe reality began to set it a little as he realized after his last sip that he’d just drunk a gallon of eggnog while having run 3 and ¾ miles. There was one thing left to do to break the record, he had to run with a gallon of eggnog in his stomach. The previous record was set by a runner who had run the same distance and drunk a gallon as well. Unfortunately, he threw up before he was able to start his last lap. All this runner had to do was run, 10 meters, 20 meters, anything. He started….he made it 50 meters with a gallon in his belly before it all came a tumblin’ down.

THis holiday season, tell you family a tale of people giving all they have in the true spirit of Christmas. Tell them about the Eggnog 400..and maybe if your lucky you'll get to see them throw up some eggnog next year.