More people would have happier holidays, I suspect, if they followed the practice of our friends Dick and Patty. For their once-in-a-while Christmas party, they don’t serve alcohol, not even in punch. This is for practical rather than philosophic reasons: they live atop a high hill and the first—and only--time they held a large party with an open bar, somebody ran off their road, fortunately with minor injuries. “I couldn’t face it if somebody hurt or killed themselves,” Patty said. That has of course, happened at other island parties, as it has all over the land.
Given the fact that most alcohol is very acidic, I welcome the chance to substitute sparkling pear or apple juice for wines and hard liquor. From the vantage point of a non-drinker, I find people lighter, more fun, easier to talk to when everybody is sober rather than sodden. From the vantage point of being a former drinker, I find it glorious to wake up the next morning without a headache.
Having said that, I’ll probably serve--but not drink--wine at Thanksgiving because I know that at least one of the guests would be lost without it. (The enabler in me persists!) However, as I’ve become less accepting of a glass of wine, I find that more of our friends are doing the same. At a dinner with two other couples recently, half a bottle of wine was consumed before dinner and none during the meal, although I’d brought out another bottle just in case.
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