Toast the holidays a bit early at tonight's Hops & Grinds at The Willows, featuring limited-edition holiday brews and an all-you-can-eat merry-season-themed food buffet. This month's event will also host the release of "The Hawai'i Beer Book: Bars, Breweries & Beer Cuisine" (Watermark Publishing, $15.95). The new guide — available at Hops & Grinds — is all about local beer, where you can get it, the local breweries that make it, suds-incorporating recipes and how to make beer at home. From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., $25 advance, $30 door. Reservations: 952-9200.

— Derek Paiva

SHARE YOUR FAMILY HOLIDAY CUSTOMS

Many families have holiday traditions — a particular gift-giving format, an annual photo posed at a special spot, a dish that Mom prepares. These stories, whether they concern Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or some other seasonal celebration, make for warm telling, and The Advertiser Island Life section would like to tell as many of them as possible.

Send us a paragraph — two at most — about something that makes your family unique. We'll publish these in December. Mark it "Traditions" and send to: Island Life, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802; islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com; or fax 525-8055.

— Advertiser Staff

FINAL WORD

"The freakin' paparazzi on every location we're at is unbelievable. When I come to the 'Law and Order' set, no one really cares ... but for whatever reason, (Mr. Big) ignited some kind of chemical combustion in people's heads."

Chris Noth | on filming the "Sex and the City" movie in New York, in TV Guide