Is Christmas really over? I guess since I'm back to work and everything is now gearing up for bringing in the New Year, I suppose that does mean that Christmas really IS over. :Dancing_wub:

I had a great Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve evening with my husband's father's side of the family. Aside from having to drive almost an hour and a half each way to get there, it was a good time. We spent Christmas day at home. Mostly. Christmas morning we were home together. That afternoon we got together with our neighbors for a feast. They cooked a turkey and I cooked a prime rib roast. I also did my cauliflower gratin - which is one of my all time fave dishes! In addition to that, I did a batch of my stuffing, my cranberry relish and my green bean casserole which people say is "just different and better" than theirs. I use fresh green beans and I'm sure it's how I cook those green beans that makes the difference. We sat down to our meal around 3 and ate and ate and ate.

We played games well into the night and my sweet hubby and I had to run home for about an hour in the middle of that to get our stuff ready for Saturday's festivities. We were commissioned to bring our stuffed jalapenos so we got them stuffed and baked and headed back over for more games.

Saturday it was almost impossible to get up. We should have been leaving our house around 9 as our destination was 3 hours away and lunch was scheduled for 1pm. But we didn't even get out of bed until 10. And we didn't get to the destination until 2:30.

The destination was a small town on the outskirts of hill country here in Texas. We were having a family reunion Christmas party and this was the first year in over a decade where all members of the family were present. One wife and new baby and one girlfriend on the verge of becoming fiance were missing. I have finally met all of my sweet hubby's family. We got there at 2:30 and as is usual, lunch still had not happened. We ate around 3. Again with turkey but this time it was accompanied by ham and brisket. And lots of fixin's, of course.

I was pretty good on Saturday about not hitting the candy, cakes, pies, and sweets in general. I did eat my home made concoctions on Christmas day...

We were at that party until well after 10pm and then we headed back to the MIL's house. There the BIL and his wife, MIL and her husband and my husband and I sat down for our gift exchange. My homemade craftiness elicited many excited shouts of glee. I was actually surprised a bit as I had anticipated my MIL being way more "ooh and ahh" about it all but it was my SIL that was jumping up and down saying "YOU DID THIS?" Her craftiness has led to entrepreneurialism and so her compliments and amazement were flattering to me.

We finally crashed around 1am and were up bright and early at 9 for breakfast and then church. My MIL is the organist at her church and with all of her family in town many of us descended on her church. One of her brothers played as well, MIL on the organ and her brother on the piano. She had premade casseroles for each of us as SIL can't eat dairy, I dislike grits - and my hubby - her oldest son - LOVES grits. The casserole made with me in mind was a hashbrown casserole stuffed with scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon. While I love it - I had to tell her when she asked if it was good that I hope she understands she can't keep making these things for me. It was way more hash browns than anything else. Don't worry, I said it with tact and compliments as I do like the stuff. But I have also gotten to the point where anything but my smoothie in the morning just causes problems.

And yesterday was a case in point. Having had ALL that heavy starch first thing in the morning with not nearly enough protein in it to balance it out...I was FAMISHED all day long!

After church we headed over to one of the uncle's homes for lunch which was tacos and fajitas. I ate far more of all that than I would normally. Sweet hubby and I got on the road for Houston around 4 yesterday afternoon and after all that eating, I STILL wanted dinner last night, too. Got salads, though, so that was better than it could have been.

After three days of no scale activity I got on the scale this morning and saw a one pound rise. I had anticipated more, especially after yesterday. But I am not convinced this pound will stick as there are some issues working that when resolved will show a drop. Enough said on that one. :drool:

But here I am - after Christmas with things settling and only a pound to show for it. I did have this attitude this year of 'I'm just gonna eat and enjoy cause next year I'll have to worry about PB's and everything else' so I've actually eaten more cookies than I normally do. It's been odd. I know I'll still be able to eat cookies. I just don't know that I'll want to. And so I decided to enjoy! I'm still down from my last weigh in and I have my next one next Thurs. So when my issue works itself out, I know I'll be down even more. I know my issue is related to not having drank nearly enough water over the past four-five days. And now that I'm back to work, that will change.

It's been a wonderful Christmas this year - although way too busy. I think I will make gifts again - but I'm starting them in January. I think we will attend parties again - but not all of them. We have done too much driving over the past four days and while that was beneficial for knitting scarves, it was just too much time in the car. Visits were too short and my hubby and I are just thoroughly exhausted at this point. And the stressful part there is I'm not sure when we will catch up on sleep as we have more festivities, of course, this weekend - and travel, too. Our efforts to "have Christmas at home" have apparently made Christmas more stressful. :bye: So the feeling now...is that Christmas will be spent elsewhere. No more to-ing and fro-ing...that's what I say! Either that...or we move! :present:

I enjoyed your blog about your Christmas events. When did you have your surgery? I'm only 3 mo into my lapband journey. I did pretty good this first Christmas. I still lost a few pounds, in spite of the few cookies and othr desserts I "sampled".

.Are you LDS2 or does your username have another meaning?

I have not had my surgery yet - I have to do a six month weightloss program for my insurance company. I am half way through that...

LD is for my first two initials and swims because I love to swim...

Congrats on doing well this Christmas!

After Christmas blues....I am going through it too. I love Christmas and I get so sad when family goes back home! *sigh*

WHAT???!! IT'S OVER???!!!

*sigh* -BG