Right now, amateur bartenders all across this fair city are practicing their pours and (one would hope) sharpening up their recipes in anticipation of the Seattle Weekly Hot Cocktails event happening this Sunday, December 5, at Liberty (517 15th Avenue). The bottles are all racked. The bars are all organized. Lucky reader MJ Hughes has won herself a spot at the head table as judge for the competition. And all we need now is for you, dear readers, to show up thirsty on Sunday at 7pm.So why should you make the trek? Well, let me tell you…For starters, there’s going to be booze there. Lots of it. And something tells me that you don’t already have something more drink-y planned for a Sunday evening.Two, we’re going to have bartenders on hand from some of the city’s best bars (La Bete, Mistral Kitchen, Barrio , Vessel and new addition, Moshi Moshi), who’ll be handling that booze with all their customary skill–crafting warm drinks on a cold night in the Emerald City.Three, there’s going to be a contest where regulars from the participating bars (backed by drink-slinging professionals) will be standing up in front of god and everyone, crafting their best warm drink for our crack team of judges, and vying to be named best-in-show. That alone should be worth the price of admission (which, by the way, is free).And if all that wasn’t enough to get you up off your couches and into the bar, then how ’bout this? December 5 is “Repeal Day” in the U.S.–a commemoration of the repeal of prohibition and the first day in 1933 when boozehounds here and across the country were allowed to lift a glass legally.There are bars all across Seattle (including places like Zig Zag and Tavern Law, Rob Roy, Spur and almost every bar that’s participating with us at Hot Cocktails) that will be celebrating what might just become my favorite holiday. But the best way you can honor the day? By coming out and lifting a glass at Liberty with all the rest of us.