How to Handle a Party, or Not, You Decide

I had a Christmas party to attend on Saturday evening.  It was for my step-mom's family.  She is part of a huge family so there were tons of people there.  Each of us was supposed to bring a dish to pass.  The meat and drinks were provided.  Since each family was supposed to bring a dish and there was an estimated 70 people at this party, there was plenty of food to go around.  I also noticed that the dishes that people brought were not just dishes, they were DISHES!  You can tell how large someone's family is by the quantities that they cook.  I have found this to be true in my own family as well.  My mom is also part of a large family and you can tell because when her family has a party, no matter how many people are coming, the portions provided are ginormous (This is my daughter's new favorite word.  I thought I would try it on for size. I'm not sure it fits me.)

The plentiful food made this party especially challenging for me.  Everything looked so good and it was tempting to try each and every dish.  If I had tried each and every dish I could have filled 2 plates full of food and two plates full of food is not the best way to handle the party in my eyes. In retrospect I handled some things at the party very well.  The appetizers filled every inch of a 6-person kitchen table.  The choices were chips, dips, crackers, sausage, cheese, veggies and more. I started with veggies. I’ve gotten myself pretty used to plain veggies so most of the time, I need little to no dip to still enjoy them.  I think it’s important to start with the veggies because the veggies will fill me up and I am less likely to eat them at all if I save them until later. I then moved on to having some chips and some of the dips too – probably a few too many but I’ve certainly ate worse in the past.

One benefit to my current life is that I have a built in distraction at parties – his name is Samuel.  He is 18 months old and goes 18 miles per hour non-stop.  I have not found his off button yet.  He checked out his surroundings for about 10 minutes slowly and then decided that he felt like he was in a fabulous home where people still decorated at his level.  I chased Samuel around this rather large house catching the picture frames, remote controls, pencils and nutcracker displays he insisted on touching.  This kept me from eating the main meal until I was good and ready.  After chasing Samuel for 30 minutes and most people had already eaten I hoped that my choices would be fewer.  I had hoped that most of the bad choices would be gone.  No such luck – this is where that big portions thing comes in.  I’m pretty sure that most of the people took home half of the food they brought.  It was amazing!

One thing that helped me was that my dish to pass was fruit salad.  With all of the parties I always offer to bring a healthy dish.   This way I know that no matter what else is offered, I have my healthy dish.   I am proud to say that although my bowl of fruit salad wasn’t as large as some of the other dishes but it wasn’t small either and I only took home a very small portion. That tells me that I am not the only one that appreciates a healthy dish at parties too.  So as I was looking at all of my choices for dinner I had my fruit salad to fill half of my plate and then put the rest on the other half. The turkey and gravy looked delicious and was probably the leanest meat offered.  I skipped the bun because I was more interested in the pasta salad. I can have a bun any day buy rarely have pasta salads.  There was also a large pot of veggies. I started to scoop some onto my plate but changed my mind. They were swimming in butter.  I decided that I just didn’t need all of that extra fat, even if was covering veggies. I shared my plate with Sammy.  That always helps with portion control too but he doesn’t really eat that much.

Another benefit to my healthy habits is that I always carry a bottle of water with me.  They only had soda, juice and alcohol at the party so I got my bottle of water out of the diaper bag and was able to eat my calories instead of drinking them.  I’m not much of a drinker – I never have been – so ignoring the alcohol is no big deal to me.  I have also gotten used to drinking water all of the time. I almost never drink soda anymore so it doesn’t even appeal to me at most parties.  I just want my water.  I would much rather save my calories for dessert.  That’s my downfall.  There was a whole nook of desserts.  There were some lovely chocolates that looked great and tasted even better.  I could have ignored the desserts and have left the party happy but I didn’t think of that at the time.  It’s a good thing it’s still so early in the Christmas season. I have many more parties to go to so eventually I will get it right.

Have a great day,

Corinna

"Besides this, you know what time it is, how it s now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably  as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy." -Romans 13:11-13