7/ My Life in Alcohol Consumption, Part VII

Seventies (so far): My kids gave me a wonderful, elegant surprise cocktail party for my 70th. Not long after, I identified a family predisposition to liver damage. A DNA test confirmed mine was vulnerable. And not long after that, my Lyme doctor told me alcohol sends Lyme spirochetes into a feeding frenzy. He cut me off.

So with rare exceptions (a glass of wine last Christmas Eve is the only one I can recall) I haven't had any alcohol in the past  three years or so. I realized immediately that I didn't miss it, and that was a bit of a surprise. I still go to the BYOB dinners, but my friends consume the B's. I can still get in the spirit of things without the wine. But unlike my teen years, these days I drink water, not Coke. I felt a sense of relief when I realized I could drive home any time unimpaired. I sort of miss the festive cocktails I used to serve my family at Christmas. I had a whole tradition of looking up recipes, making small versions to taste-test, etc. That was fun, and the drinks looked so pretty in the stemware. But given how few complaints I've heard from family members the past two Christmases (like none), I'm guessing they don't feel deprived. They're free to raid my 28-bottle wine rack and my liquor cabinet, but no raids have happened yet.