Surviving Christmas??

Well - Christmas 2008 has come & gone and I'm pleased to report that it was fairly easy to survive. I've been trying not to weigh myself too much - too frustrating but on Christmas Day, I tried on my engagement ring which I had to stop wearing mid-November (I could get it on but if my hands swelled even slightly, it was painful) and it fits again!! Still not 100% comfortable but I would say I'm at 90% comfort compared to about 50% 4-5 weeks ago. So I hopped on the scale on Saturday and I'm down... 10 lbs since I met with Dr. Pop in mid-November!! Woot!!

It's nice to have my folks here for Christmas as we all struggle with our own weight issues so we tried not to bring too many sweets into the house, etc but were allowing some so that the kids can enjoy some of the joys of the holidays too. My really close friend Penny made cookies and sent me home with a 12 x 6" container of homemade cookies on the 19th - sugar cookies, soft ginger snaps, shortbread, a chocolate coated peanut brittle type stuff and chocolate coated oriental noodles with marshmallows & peanuts. I admit to eating quite a few of the ginger snaps but maybe 2-3 a day? On the 23rd, we had my mom's cousin over for tea and we had almost half of those cookies still left to put out along with some from a tin of store bought ones (the President's Choice Belgian Chocolate selection).

The 24th was a little more challenging - we went to my Aunt's home and she had made Nanaimo bars and added extra dark chocolate (a weakness for both mom & I) on the top. Thankfully she cut them small (1/2" x 1/2" ??) so when I say I had 3 of them, it sounds bad until you realize I normally would have eaten 3 "normal" sized ones which are 1 x 1". Otherwise, I had a cup of tea... she had made mince tarts but I'm not a huge mince tart fan and I decided to splurge my calories on something I adore. How's that for a NSV?! (non-scale victory)

Dinners the week leading up to Christmas were great - we made a big ham on Tuesday night with scalloped potatoes and carrots (which meants yummy ham for lunch on Wed & Thurs). Wednesday night was Farm Boy tourtiere and ham leftovers which most of the adults chose! Christmas dinner was spectacular - we bought a fresh turkey at Farm Boy (seriously - I will never buy frozen or a "ball" bird again!!), made stuffing from scratch, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed/whipped white potatoes, carrots and peas. And we made gravy from the pan drippings... It was fabulous!

On Boxing Day, Bill & I made turkey soup with lots of veggies which the kids all loved!! I've even cooked dinner (don't drop dead out there!) 6 out of the last 7 days (with the exception of Boxing Day when Bill & I ordered in pizza).