The first article I had published in my local newspaper, about 13 years ago, was a little ditty about coming home early from a holiday party as I had a new baby waiting for me at home. It wasn’t just the fear of my own mortality vs. the mortality of a drunk driver, I had vowed never to be drunk in front of my kid. Thereby making a New Year’s resolution that would set me up forever as either a winner or a loser.

As a wine writer, somehow, I have gotten away with it. Suffice to say the magic words were that I don’t get drunk in front of my kid. That’s what they made wine bars for.

My friends hated me on New Years. Sure they loved the built-in designated driver but this anal compulsive had to get everyone home before midnight as that was the magic time Old Lang Syne freaked-out drunks decided it would be safe to get on the road.

Then, on other years, I discovered that if I stayed at home, with the benefit of a Pepcid AC, with my husband and a bottle of Dampierre or Dom Perignon champagne at 4 pm, I could stretch my drinking out until midnight, again without getting drunk. The Pepcid AC didn’t keep me from getting drunk but it did keep me from regretting the Domaine de Canton martini I would slip into the mix of my stomach about 8 pm.

Still at home, still not drunk…but then I decided to sit down and write about it. I still swear I wasn’t drunk. I still think it was just laziness on my part. Even possible that I mistook my Pepcid AC for…my vitamins?

Yes, so here I sit, not drunk and not getting a cold either. So safely tucked in at home I can hardly believe another year has slipped by with nothing by hundreds of empty bottles to show for it…and a clear head.