It just occurred to me that for my fellow April class mates, Christmas and New Years are potentially the last big drinking holidays of the year that we will go through sober for the first time. (Well, I have a January birthday too!)
I started sobriety right at the beginning of my true drinking season. I quit drinking one week before a "Raise your Mug for a Cure" cancer event my sister in law runs where you pay 40 bucks to drink as much craft beer as you want. I somehow survived that 8 days in, when no one even knew I was quitting. Survived the Memorial BBQ picnic with 120 people drinking heavily. July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, multiple concerts. I guess drinking holidays were not really all that important to me because every day in my life became a drinking holiday. "Holiday" drinking was just for amateurs. We have all come a long way April mates!