Celebrating holidays, for me, is different nowadays than it used to be back when I was much younger.<\/p>\n
There was a time when during the holiday season that I didn\u2019t even give a moment\u2019s thought to the amount of calories that would find their way onto my plate and into my mouth.<\/p>\n
Whether we were celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year\u2019s, it did not matter \u2013 it was all the same \u2013 lots of family, lots of food and lots of fun.<\/p>\n
The cooking would start early in the morning, long before I would wake. It was the smell of turkey on Thanksgiving that would rouse me out of bed.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m pretty sure that it was our house \u2013 my grandmother\u2019s house really \u2013 in North Rome that was the best smelling house in all of Bradford County.<\/p>\n
Family would converge on North Rome from all the places that they had spread out to, and we would come together in this one place. My mother and I would drive in from Elmira, N.Y.<\/p>\n
All the extra leaves for the table would come out of their storage places and the kitchen table would suddenly become the largest kitchen table I have ever seen. Even so, a few years we still had to have a kids\u2019 table because there just wasn\u2019t enough room at the main table.<\/p>\n
At least a couple times we had a neighbor or two at our table. These neighbors were not just neighbors, they were our friends.<\/p>\n
It was a full house \u2013 a house full of joy, love and laughter \u2013 so full of all of these things, that I\u2019m quite sure the walls could barely contain them.<\/p>\n
We would feast away. One year I remember the bird in my grandmother\u2019s really large oven (I\u2019m pretty sure the largest residential oven I\u2019ve ever seen) was a 25-pound turkey. It was most definitely big enough for leftovers, even if we did eat a lot of it.<\/p>\n
Giant bowls of potatoes, lots of stuffing, and all the other classic holiday foods \u2013 we had it all.<\/p>\n
And when we were done celebrating Thanksgiving, that same day, we would celebrate Christmas too, because not everyone in the family could make it for our Christmas Eve celebration.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d play games and snack. Some would watch football. I admit I didn\u2019t do much of that.<\/p>\n
Until the gifts came out, I was more likely to be found playing Scrabble or watching others play Scrabble, popping grapes in my mouth as the words came to mind. These were great times. I think it was during one of these holiday games where I heard the story about my mother being challenged once for playing the word \u201ctharf\u201d during some other random game. As it turns out, bad tiles can make great words. And so the alphabet soup left on my mom\u2019s letter tray turned out to be useful.<\/p>\n
Then there were the pies. Sometimes we\u2019d eat pie right after our meal and sometimes we\u2019d wait a while. Usually there were three types of pie to choose from if memory serves. We\u2019d have pumpkin (or sometimes squash), mincemeat and some other random fruit pie \u2013 likely apple or grape.<\/p>\n
As I think of all the eating that we would do that day, complete with turkey sandwiches or other leftovers later on, I can\u2019t say that I have any idea how any of us could walk after all of that.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t care about calories then. I ate what I wanted to.<\/p>\n
Since then, I don\u2019t always eat nearly as freely as I once did. The consciousness of what one meal can do to my health has crept into my mind. I ate pretty well at Thanksgiving this year, although the celebrations of the past and present are quite different. We no longer converge on North Rome – that house is now a memory \u2013 although the best of memories.<\/p>\n
Some of our family members are no longer with us. I\u2019d like to think that they are somewhere in heaven celebrating the holidays there, waiting for the day that the rest of us will one day join them. I imagine them enjoying a feast where no one has to worry about whether or not their clothes will fit thereafter.<\/p>\n
The truth about holidays is that sure, the food is good, but it\u2019s the people that make it all great.<\/p>\n
One year I ate eight (small) crescent rolls during one Thanksgiving meal, but I would have had as much fun if I had only one or two. Yes, there were enough crescent rolls left for the rest of my family too \u2013 I didn\u2019t eat them all \u2013 even if I acted as if I was trying to.<\/p>\n
I was young then, and not as aware of what I was doing to my waistline as I am now.<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t learned yet how to savor my food. And frankly, I knew that year I was being quite a porker, even as I was stuffing my face.<\/p>\n
I still have to remember that food is really best savored even if sometimes it so much fun to shovel it in.<\/p>\n
And frankly, it\u2019s so easy to shovel the food in one\u2019s mouth when there is so much of it on the table and so many others that are doing the same.<\/p>\n
And also, some years it may be hard to tame the energy that can be at the holiday table, enough so that one is capable of being mindful of savoring one\u2019s food between the stories and the laughter.<\/p>\n
I admit I can\u2019t be counted guilty of savoring my Thanksgiving meal this year. I wish I had. I didn\u2019t eat eight crescent rolls by any means this year, but I forgot myself a little bit and had a little extra stuffing and an extra roll or two.<\/p>\n
The holidays weren\u2019t over though. I still had Christmas holiday eating ahead of me, for me a holiday which was celebrated both on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve and New Year\u2019s Day. I still want to enjoy my meals on those days, but instead of shoveling it in as if I were a starving animal I think it will be best if I take the time to enjoy it as if it were the luxury that it really is. Instead I\u2019ll feast on joy and laughter, and the good times with my family that I love so much. It\u2019s that that I can enjoy with abandon without the fear of the consequences that my waistline will have to face.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n