In my last blog, I said I was strong enough to resist those goodies at the Holiday party Saturday night. !!NOT!! I guess I just can’t separate food and fun yet. Had a really great time jabbering with friends and catching up with folks I haven’t seen since the heat of golf season. I enjoyed the food and the company. Of course, I woke up in the middle of the night with a stopped up nose. I think the consequence was worth the fun this time.

I’ve been fighting off a virus the past couple of days. Foggy head and the hint of a scratchy throat. I’m swigging the Proberry-3 and have upped the dosage of Vitamin C and an immune enhancing formula the nutritional therapist gave me. I think I feel a little better today, but will continue with the protocol for one more day to be sure. The last thing I want is a full-blown cold right now. We leave for a vacation in Cancun next week. I don’t want to be miserable there.

We haven’t been doing much about Christmas preparations this year. Mainly due to the vacation plans. I’ve been pretty busy with work and such, so that the only shopping I’ve done is online. The season’s spirit hasn’t hit me yet. I need some things to wrap. I probably won’t be doing much baking this year. At least I’m hoping so. Not having the goodies around the house would surely help me in my quest for weight maintenance this season. We’ll see.

Another Holiday challenge is coming my way this evening. A cocktail party at a friend’s house. I really, really don’t want to put on any weight this season. But I really, really like having a good time. Avoid foods and good times just seem to go together.

I am going to attempt to use ‘strategy’ this time. I’ll eat a handful or two of compliant nuts before I leave the house. There should be enough fat in them to stave off any hunger. With that in mind, I will make every effort to choose only compliant foods at the party. The question will be, if I can have a good time while being compliant.

This isn’t forever. It’s just one party. I can do it!

Well, no sooner we stop our Thanksgiving remembrances, then it’s Holiday party time! It seems like it’s one right after another coming up. Sunday I went out with the girls to see a local musical comedy revue. It was pretty good. A light story built around lots of singing and dancing. We had lunch beforehand, and I was compliant with sliced Thai beef with lettuce, tomatoes, pineapple and cucumber. At the theater while I popped into the ladies room before the performance, my ‘friends’ bought me a glass of champagne. I couldn’t refuse, but I really don’t like alcohol that early in the day.

Last night was another girls party at a friend’s house. It was one of those gift exchange parties where you get to steal gifts away if you like something that someone else has opened and it is your turn. It was potluck, of course. I brought a compliant tray of sushi. (No, I didn’t make it, just ordered it from the sushi place). There were a couple chicken dishes that were no problem to pass up. I think what did me in was the desserts. Someone made a dyno-mite fruitcake with apricots and pecans. I also had to sample some cookies, too. Couldn’t hurt anyone’s feelings, ya know. I think that if I had stuck to portion control, I would have found that I did pretty well at avoiding avoids. It was the portion control thing.

The secret is portion control. I have the secret!

Well, it was a different sort of Thanksgiving Day for the three of us. We decided to have the holiday meal at a restaurant. Hubby just didn't want leftovers in the house to tempt him.

We made reservations at a Seattle restaurant, which was the first mistake. A closer one would have been a better choice. We spent twice as long on the freeway as normal, due to extremely heavy traffic. Everyone was on the road traveling to their own harvest feast. Plus there was a big traffic accident to wade our way through. We were an hour late for our reservation, but they were still able to seat us fairly quickly.

The meal started with a very promising pumpkin soup. The bibb lettuce, cranberry, blue cheese and raspberry vinaigrette salad that followed was very nice. The rolls in the breadbasket were cold and chewy, so I didn’t have any trouble skipping that. Alas, the turkey was very dry. The vegetables were cold, and overcooked. The gravy was too spicy. The mashed potatoes were grainy. The stuffing had promise, but had been sitting around a bit too long. The bottle of Riesling helped a lot.

The desserts were wonderful. The three of us nibbled on a key lime mousse and a dense chocolate cake. I was careful just to take tiny tastes.

I wasn’t disappointed in the day. It was fun to be with my family and have a new adventure. I looked around the restaurant while we were eating and marveled at all the different families enjoying each other. There were smiles on all faces as they engaged in jokes and conversations. There were lots and lots of smiles. It was marvelous. That was food for my soul this Thanksgiving Day.

Oh, you gotta know it’s the holiday season. There are eating orgies everywhere. Let me tell you about this weekend!

Saturday was my birthday, so hubby took me to Seattle for a night on the town. We went to Jazz Alley to see Taj Mahal. He was as good as ever. In fact, I think he has matured into a great entertainer, as long with his good music. All I had there was a vodka martini, with olives. After the show we went to the Dahlia Lounge for dinner. Tom Douglas is a pretty well known chef who owns four restaurants in Seattle. He puts food together in ingenious ways, and it always tastes good. Usually I can find a compliant dinner on the menu, but this time there was always one big avoid stuck in the middle. And these are the kind of meals that you don’t dare ask for a substitution, or it ruins the art of the presentation. The lamb dish had lentils in it. The salmon dish had polenta with it. The halibut had potatoes. So, I ended up ordering a five spice duck with rice and vegetable complement. They bake their own bread on premises, so that could not be avoided. I was too stuffed for dessert, but hubby ordered their signature doughnut holes with marscipone and raspberry preserves. I finally forced one down, but I was too full to really enjoy it. I have to add that one manhattan and a bottle of red wine (shared) accompanied the dinner. We spent the night in a nearby hotel to avoid driving home with that amount of alcohol in ‘his’ system.

On Sunday, we invited two couples over for dinner. Hubby decided he wanted to do an Italian dinner, so I was conscripted to make my famous spaghetti sauce. There are no avoids in my sauce. It is a recipe my mother always used, and it still stands up to the test of time. Appetizers were assorted olives, some mixed nuts, and a brie with water crackers. The salad course was tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. The spaghetti sauce was served over some really good penne (wheat, of course) accompanied by toasted crostini with anchovy paste. This was served with a couple good bottles of Chianti. We sort of cheated on dessert by buying individual pumpkin tarts. But, after a heavy meal like that, not too many of us were even interested in the tarts.

I had pasta eyes this morning. Lots of edema around the face. My nose was totally stuffed up, too. I hope this isn’t going to be the norm for the next six weeks. I’m going to have to take it day by day and eat mostly beneficials between these holiday happenings. Wish me luck!