A few tips on getting through the Holidays
With Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza, etc. just ahead, I thought I'd share a couple things I do to help me survive the hols in one piece.
First is always have an escape plan. If you've made your appearance and are getting tired of being around drinkers, be sure to have an escape. Drive yourself or have someone who knows you're not drinking willing to drive you home. Once you've made an appearance, if folks are drinking heavily, no one will notice if you do an Irish goodbye.
The second thing I do is stay as far away from the bar as possible. We're hosting T-Day and set the bar up in the living room. Then I spend most of my time in the kitchen.
The third tip is to have a NA drink in your hand. Be it a Coke, or a fizzy water with a twist of lime. No one will bug you about not drinking if it looks like you're imbibing.
If anyone has some more tips, please post them here. Be safe and have a great holidays everyone!
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And I've passed on that "having a drink in your hand" advice, too. That way you're unlikely to be offered anything. And the other thing I learned when I joined AA (in 2008) was to bring a buddy if you're worried about having someone insist or you'll be tempted. I also decide where I belong and where I don't. Though I went to a class reunion with a friend last week (not my class) and I expected there'd be coffee since there usually is, but all I saw was a loaded bar. So I finally spoke to a waitress who was kind enough to bring me a cup of coffee - twice. But then I've been doing this for awhile. Kudos on your sobriety! 
And when I started in AA, it was with a women's group who used to go out to dinner when anyone celebrated an anniversary. My sponsor told me to go so I'd get to know them. At one of those anniversaries I gave one woman a 50 year coin!
Anyway, we became regulars at this nice place - and the first time the waitress was curious if it was someone's birthday since there were at least a dozen of us - and she'd obviously asked some others, but no one had let on. So when I went to leave, she asked me. My first thought was anonymity, so I finally said "we're sober women." And she replies "oh, that kind of birthday!" turns out that the waitress had 27 years! Just goes to show, you never know!
And the restaurant is on the way to the meeting which is held at the county municipal center. And I've been a member since 2008. 
the context of the program, you being from New York. It's how Bill W described himself when he made that famous phone call to Henrietta Seiberling that connected him to Dr. Bob. I thought it was in the Big Book but I can't find it anywhere (doing a text search of an electronic text copy of it). Anyway, it's a famous phrase (in my mind anyway), though I don't know where I first read it. I read many history of AA books back a couple decades ago. 