The urge to drink can just sorta slink out the back door one day... you might not even notice it's missing for a few months... and then one day you look at someone else's drink, and it just looks like... nothing... and this tiny little peaceful bell sorta rings in your head and you think, I'd rather have cranberry juice and my sobriety.

I'm coming up on 2 years sober now.. somewhere along the way, I just started thinking that way. I think it helps that so many wonderful people have stepped up into my life, to fill that big space that alcohol used to hold... Yesterday I trashed my whole To-Do list to go walking in the snowy woods with a neighbor-friend, and then to lunch, and then a little after-Christmas-clearance shopping! Because she called and needed to talk to a friend. ME!!!

That's been the best part. That I have time for the people in my life. I have time to listen to my son read the story he's writing, ALL 48 hand-written pages, in his teeny tiny little engineer-in-training mechanical script, the plot admitttedly heavily derivative of Star Wars, but including his own amazing dialog and delightfully precise punctuation!

Last month I jumped in the car with my best friend and travelled across the state to see a mutual friend we haven't seen in 28 years! We slept in Walmart parking lots along the way, ate really terrible granola/horse food bars, and laughed and cried... we even stopped at Cabela's/ Neither of us have ever been to Cabela's! THAT was an experience!

I'm having the whole extended family over for New Year's this year, 40-some odd people in this little house. There will be booze, beer, and quite possibly a suspicious pink punch...Well, It's BYOB, so I don't have to supply any of it. I have the coffee and tea and mulled apple cider... This will be my second sober New Year's. It feels a lot different from last year's. This time I know I'm gonna be alright. I know I'm gonna play board games and Wii, and help the kids do a messy little craft, and eat too many cookies and laugh way too hard and remember to actually take some pictures and have a GIGANTIC mess to clean up the next day... it's gonna be great.

Wishing everyone here a messy, noisy, or neat and quiet New Year's, either way, one you can be proud of.