Drinking for the Holidays

My mother started buying diet soda sometime in the late 80's and has never stopped. There isn't a stockpile of hundreds of cases in our basement, but the same 12 pack rotating by the steps inside the garage over and over, week to week, month to month. Since leaving home it's been joined by other diet sodas and on occasion regular Coke.

When I was growing up, cans of Coca-Cola were a Christmas privilege. The syrupy sweetness with the harsh edge from sucking the carbonatio down too fast was synonymous with the family gatherings held on Christmas Eve. Playing my sister's Sega Genesis without permission in my nice clothes, getting kicked back into the living room and easing the sting of reprimand with a red can bearing the classic image of old St. Nick. Other notable treats were small pizzas baked on rye bread and loose meat rolled up with cream cheese.

Adulthood has been an adventure or realizing I can have this stuff whenever I want. Thus the mini-pizzas and meat & cream cheese wheels and, unfortunately, Coca-Cola have all lost their holiday significance. I just had a Coke and hour ago. A new tradition, though, is Egg Nog. I'd never had it until getting older and, though it gives me heartburn at full force, I enjoy when it comes around at this time of year.

Cheers! To the fading of old traditions and the birth of new ones. Make a tradition! Keep it! Feliz Navidad! Drive safe!