Addiction & Recovery

No, I was never an alcoholic myself, but my family of origin was loaded with them. I have six siblings and most of them except for one sister were alcoholics and were always unemployed or not partnered with anyone or the one sister who wasn't an alcoholic was married to one and she was poor as a church mouse trying to feed her kids. So I always hosted every holiday in my house because I felt I had a better life with a better financial situation and wanted them to have somewhere to go. I would dread every holiday because at least a couple of them would always get plastered, never knew when to leave, had various excuses for why they couldn't bring a dish... you get the scenario. One year my sister fell down the stairs from the bathroom upstairs and blamed it on "the dark lighting". Another year a brother showed up really late and wouldn't leave until midnight and I still had stuff to do for my two young children so "Santa" could come. Another Christmas a brother left our house drunk and within two miles hit a parked car and came back to our house and wanted us to drive him home so he could leave his smashed up car in our driveway. Then we got transferred to another state far away and I was so relieved that I wouldn't have to do all that for holidays.

Your last sentence really hit home. I have never liked the holidays. I'm always so glad when they're over. I think there are quite a few of us out there and maybe some who won't even admit it for fear others will think there's something wrong with us. I think that maybe we're the ones who are the smart ones.

I am so glad you took the steps to stop drinking. Oh, by the way, the man my sober sister was married to? He died of cirrhosis at 50 years old leaving her with eight children to raise.