Holiday Party

Someone had lots of patience & a ton of talent to create this carved fruit display.

Usually we had a big ice scuplture as a display. This year they went with something different.

Not sure what this was called. It had tofu in it and I thought it was pretty good.

Even though my friend, Brenda refused to try it...she won't try anything with tofu.

This pasta salad was also good

Carrie was making someone a tortillini dish. Brenda said that was good..I had eaten enough and so I didn't try this.

What more could you ask for then a room full of friends & food. Right about now, whoever has been reading all my posts in this blog was probably thinking that this blog will by the opposite of (or go against) the last blog..LOL

So yes, even though I went to a holiday party and stayed for about 4 & 1/2 hrs...I don't feel like I went crazy with all the food. I still had my old holiday favorite~yams/sweet potato. Mostly I ate the pasta salad. Course I was to busy taking pictures, so I didn't have much time to sit & eat. I took about 130 pictures that night and have 50+ pictures posted on facebook (before my battery died out that night)

I also won a rice cooker in the gift drawing this year. I have never used a rice cooker before but lots of the foreign exchange kids that work here use them all the time, and everyone tells me how great they are.

Well, today as I type this its "Winter Soltice Day" and I expect another snowstorm tomorrow.

Holiday season~and starting anew

I often am baffled by how quickly people will dismiss changing their diets, when at the same time they are subjecting themselves to tons of Holiday stress. They can manage school plays, cookie parties, baking for 40 but tell them to walk for 20 minutes or to eat something healthy and the whining party begins.
People go through tons of stress – a flu, a breakup, a new job, shopping at Target on Black Friday. And yet, they seem to forget that they are completely able to handle stress when it comes to changing their diet and lifestyle.
This Holiday season I want to encourage you – if you really feel like it’s just so hard to change your diet and lifestyle (especially around the Holidays), give up every thing else. That’s right – no parties, no gifts, no events. Because if you can’t put your own health above one holiday season, I would seriously question if you seriously cared at all about your health.

So many people ignore their own health and don’t understand how much it impacts the lives of their loved ones. If you have a disease like diabetes(like so many of my family members), it’s not just about you – it’s about everyone that has to take care of you and everyone who has to worry about you. Your kids having to give you insulin shots or call 911 because you just crashed, is not exactly holiday cheer. Getting heart disease and dying young and leaving your family because you just couldn’t give up bacon? It’s selfish and let’s face it, doesn’t really promote the holiday spirit when you have to start worrying if this Holiday is your last.

Everyone has it in them, getting up early to walk 30 minutes is far less stressful than getting up at 3:30 AM on Black Friday, and cooking something healthy and tasty takes no more time than cooking that traditional Holiday pie.
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now the above stuff I got from another blogger...but totally made sense to me.
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And starting Sunday Dave, a guy that works at the rec center, will show me how to use all the equipment in the gym. I have 6 months till my vacation back East to see my son graduate...and I plan on having smaller clothes then. Oh yes, I'm starting a new diet & new work-out program right in the middle of holiday season.