Holiday Season is Approaching

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-08-2003
Holiday Season is Approaching
7
Sun, 10-31-2004 - 8:11am
I can't believe it! November is tomorrow and that means the holiday season will be getting into swing. Although I've already seen Christmas stuff up in Home Depot and some drug stores. Way too early, in my opinion!

I love the holidays, to tell the truth.....the shopping and decorating and the cooking! I love all of it.

This year my dh and I are trying to be "fit" financially and physically. What about you guys? We are sick of the big bills after December and the big numbers on the scale, too!

So, as well as planning for the money aspect of the holidays, we are planning for the physical part of it too. Going to Curves, cooking out of Cooking Light magazine, cutting back on the eggnog (my fav)....( that's my part of the plan. dh runs, a lot!)

Enjoy the upcoming months!

Dawn

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-31-2004
Sun, 10-31-2004 - 8:22am

And Im all giddy with excitement!

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-08-2003
Sun, 10-31-2004 - 8:36am
I will, of course, share recipes. The November issue should be arriving this week. Yum!

I hope you will be able to wear those jeans by Christmas! I'm hopeing to fit in an outfit, too, by then. We have incentive!

dawn

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-09-2004
Sun, 10-31-2004 - 2:12pm
I know what you mean! We are still financially reeling from last years Christmas bills. I told both my dd (14 yrs old) and my ds 21(yrs old) No Christmas this year!

I don't think that I will even have a tree. If I do it won't be the $100+ fresh cut flocked trees we are forced to buy each year.

I don't even feel like putting my pretty ornaments on anything else but a flocked tree. Maybe I will do what my grandmother did. Drag a regular tree in the house and decorate it with hand tied bows and christmas cards. I have a small ceramic one with lites. I can use that one so that I won't be a total humbug.

I am resolved to getting my bills and weight in control....I think God wants me to do this.

I will cook. I will make the usual honey ham, turkey, and this year I will make my home made tamales (but I will not eat them).

I bet we can find somekind of low carb egg nog if we look hard enough then only get half a serving so that we can stay in line.

What is going to kill me are the candied yams!!! sniffel...sniffel...

I will read this board everyday for help from you guys...

SussieQ



iVillage Member
Registered: 05-08-2003
Sun, 10-31-2004 - 2:45pm
Sussie, do you live in the South? I ask because when I lived in FL and Alabama, flocked trees were THE thing. Now that I'm in NJ :(, no one flocks trees. I must say, I like natural much better than flocked. I think it shows off the ornaments better, but that is just my opinion!

I know what you mean about eggnog. I saw some made by the Silk Soymilk people, but I didn't check carbs. Have you checked the Atkins site for an eggnog recipe? I wonder if there is one.

I love candied yams, too, but I'm foregoing them also. I requested my family to Lighten up a bit on the food, so not so many creamy cheesy things, but a few. They are all for it!

Hang in there. We can do it.

Dawn

edited to add: there is a recipe on the Atkins site for eggnog.....its made w/cream and splenda....so if you're counting fat, that won't help. But if you're a true Atkid, then go for it!


Edited 10/31/2004 3:46 pm ET ET by two_kids

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-31-2004
Sun, 10-31-2004 - 6:30pm
OK, what is a flocked tree?

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-08-2003
Sun, 10-31-2004 - 6:42pm
Its a tree that they spray stuff on to make it look like snow on the branches. Usually white, but I have seen some colored.....

dawn

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-09-2004
Tue, 11-02-2004 - 12:38pm
Yup! I live in Texas.

My tree needs to be flocked because my orniments are white, blue, silver, & purple. I have them in shiny, flat, and antique paint finishes. They are beautiful on a flock tree. They would not look good on a green tree.

I did the green tree thing for years...this was to be my 5th year with this tree.

My father in law died 5 years ago. He was an artist and he liked to put flower, fruit, and vegetable arrangements together. He was always booked solid for wedding flower arrangements and he didn't even have a business in it. People just liked his work and he would spend thousands of dollars on just the flowers! He could make stuff that you see in Neman Marcus or those ritzy hotels.

And on our first Christmas without him, I was in Garden Ridge Pottery Mart and I clearly heard his voice in my head tell me buy these orniments for your tree this year. Crazy as it sounds I went around the store with him telling me what to buy.

He usually had 5 to 7 Christmas Trees in his house, 1 in the living room (the most fancy and to the ceiling), a Teddy Bear tree in the den (9 foot tree), a micky mouse & other charters in the kitchen (4 1/2 foot tree)and a two footer in each bathroom, one of them purple.

I sure do miss him.

Sussie_Q