It's Holiday Month?!?

This is how my mind works and I think many of you probably think similarly but I certainly may be wrong.  Maybe I'm the only one.  You can read this and decide for yourself.

When Halloween rolls around, candy enters my life again.  I consider going back to an unhealthy lifestyle so I can eat all the candy I want without feeling guilty.  Thankfully, I only consider it and come back to my senses after the scent of sugar passes by my nose a few too many times.

Less than a month later Thanksgiving comes into my life.  Food abounds from cupboards to tables, from refrigerators to break rooms, from freezers to buffet lines, from ovens to kitchen islands and more.  Food is everywhere while getting ready for Thanksgiving and it seems that it's just the beginning.  After Thanksgiving there is an unwritten rule in our country that now we are at liberty to fill rooms and tables with food at all times.  The thought of having our oven empty bothers us.  We must bake and share our culinary talents with the world.  Therefore, we cannot walk into work, church, school, other people's homes or even our own kitchens without being bombarded with food.  This is the culture that I have grown up with and this is the culture in which my children will live as well.  It's hard sometimes to come to grip with this reality.  I find it important to find a balance with it all.

Do I indulge in the wonderful goodies that are at my fingertips day to day and week to week or do I ignore it all just to get through the holidays?  Here's my problem.  I don't want to get through the holidays, I want to enjoy them.  The holidays are truly a wonderful time of year.  My children (unbeknownst to me) starting decorating our basement the day after Thanksgiving.  I went downstairs one night to do some laundry after they were all asleep and found the basement glowing with Christmas lights. How wonderful! I thought it was so sweet that they were so excited for Christmas that they started decorating without my knowledge.  My mom has told me more than once that I have created little robots.  I'm such a creature of habit that my kids know my routines.  They know how I decorate and have taken over the process but still added some of their own flare.  I love it!!

These things are part of the glory of Christmas.  I want to enjoy the Advent season as we anticipate Christmas, not dread it because of a few cookies, candies and breads. With this in mind, I know I need a plan.  I cannot go lightly into the season or I will exit the season with a large thud (or a large something else;).  Therefor I am going to enjoy a cookie from time to time.  It has to be a good cookie though (in my language that means it needs to contain chocolate).  I will enjoy some candy from time to time (same requirement).  I will enjoy some banana or nut breads too (chocolate not required but a nice bonus). ( Hmmmmmm........I may have another problem that needs researching in the future - I see a pattern in my requirements........oh well)  I will also enjoy the foods that I do not get at any other time of the year.  These are the foods that I will eat at the parties and celebrations.  The every day stuff can be eaten every day.

Speaking of every day, every day from now until Christmas is not a holiday.  Do I need to repeat that? Christmas is almost a month away and if we indulge every day from now until then, we will be in a bind. We will have guilt ridden faces - or bodies - if we treat the "holiday season" like one big eating-fest.  This will get us into some serious trouble.  The everyday days need to stay just that - everyday, normal, ordinary days.  We need to eat our fruits and veggies every day.  We need to keep ourselves honest every day.  We need to  remember that the ordinary day is a day for healthy meals and normal portions so that the days that we have celebrating to do, we can do so without guilt or fear.

Don't be afraid of the holiday season, enjoy it, embrace it, remember the "reason for the season."  I'll give you a hint - the reason is not to eat as much as humanly possible.

I hope to blog more often.  I've been pretty busy with life here at home.  I was surprised to figure out today that I had not blogged in 5 days.  I was thinking of you all though and blogged many times in my head over these past 5 days. Time just got away from me.

Have a great day,
Corinna

"Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grown with a growth that is from God." -Colossians 2:16-19