Got on the scale today and am down 2 lbs. from last week, a surprise because only about three days ago I was *up* two pounds from last week! Either the new scale is screwy or my determination to improve in the last couple of days paid off. We have had these particular sweets in the house for my son's lunches and I can't stop at just one if I start eating them. But getting the news I was up 2 lbs. caused me to eat all foods more lightly, and it seems to have worked. Wish it was always this easy! I am pleased it helped, just not pleased at having been apparently up and down 4 lbs. all in one week. I don't trust the bouncing up and down.
My family has been planning our Christmas gatherings. We'll be up to our elbows in brunches, dinners, lunches, cookie bakes, cousin parties and white-elephant gift exchanges from the 20th through Christmas Day. It's been happening gradually that our parents and stepparents have given up hosting -- the Christmas eve dinner in particular has been held at one or another of my sisters' houses for a while. But this year we all picked up the ball on one party or another, and now we have WAY more events. My niece and an ex-sister-in-law are even hosting a party together. I've got the cookie bake and the Christmas Day party (figured if I host the cookie bake I might actually make Christmas cookies, which I haven't done since before my son was born).
The upcoming glut of events tells me I need to finish projects, pay bills, get the cleaning in, do Christmas cards and basically get stuff done that has a deadline, because there will be no doing anything but running from one event to another in that packed five days. We did remove a time-consuming chore this year, by suggesting to my husband's sister that we stop buying gifts for the kids in that group (including our son). We see each other only once a year, and their parents are all well off enough to get them pretty much whatever they want (which apparently do), and they are all tweens and teens, meaning it's no longer possible to delight them with a Hot Wheels set. I'll try to alleviate this supposed loss by sending them Christmas cards of their own. That was something I liked when I was a young teen, to receive a card addressed to me and not the family, even if it was just from my boring old aunt. It's probably even a little more unique to get anything in the mail nowadays compared to when I was a kid.
Today we're off on the hunt for a living Christmas tree, and to get a new doghouse door flap for Delphie, who chewed hers into shreds yesterday when we were unable to take her to the dog park. She has piles of chew toys, but apparently those door flaps were irresistible, along with the edge of her doghouse liner. It's just good that she didn't eat the pieces. At the dog park, she runs up and down with all the other dogs, and gets rolled over by the German Shepherds and Great Pyrenees, and there is a fave Lab puppy with whom she romps. It's much better exercise and diversion than taking a walk with her human. We were gone on errands yesterday until past dark, and the dog park is not open at night, and was she ever just bored, bored, bored. That exercise sure makes a difference!
Off to see if we can find that elusive living Christmas tree. Have a great week!