Guest post by Julie: Healthy Eating Tips for Christmas

4 Healthy Holiday Hacks – A Post from Julie Roberts

Eating healthy is not usually on our to-do list during the holiday season, but one too many slices of that favorite pie and we can wake up on New Year’s Day not feeling, or looking, our best. With planning and helpful nutritional information, there are easy ways to eat healthy while still enjoying the traditional favorites. Below I’ve rounded up four of my favorites:

Tagged For Christmas

Dawn from Dawn’s Disaster was tagged in the annual tag run by Lanaya at RaisingReagan. I’m so excited to have been tagged by Dawn this round!

Social Sunday: Get to Know Me

I'm linking up for another week of Social Sunday! Head over to A Complete Waste of Makeup to link up and hop around!

30 Days of Gratitude: Intro and catch up!

thehappinesscoach.biz

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in South Africa. It's strictly an American holiday so this makes sense. But as my boys get older, I've started collecting crafts, lessons, and elements to assist me in sharing this holiday with them.

Although we live here, I feel it is still important that they understand where I came from as it is part of their heritage. Hubby and I are doing our best to mix our cultures to an extent without actually taking away from either.

In light of this, I was so excited when Kelsey mentioned creating a linky for the 30 Days of Gratitude! So keep your eyes out for that still to come!

Can I Cure Being Homesick?

Do you ever get so busy you forget to drink something for a while? Well, I do....especially at work! I like to get in a minimum of 8 glasses of water a day. Ones about this size.

Teaching them the meaning...

Easter weekend was a lot of fun in our family, but it got me thinking about things I want my children to know and understand.

My faith in God and God being the head of our household is a very important issue for me.

So it has been a touch and go subject with Hubby Dearest and I about how to approach certain holidays.

I LOVE the memories I have as a child surrounding Easter and strongly want those for my children too. However, I still know the meaning of the holiday and that is, too, something my children must understand.

So how do you combine the modern themes with the true meanings without loosing something?

I’m blessed that we found a lovely school that also provides crèche for Lil Mister. The school ages from 1 year all the way until you graduate high school. It is grounded in Christian beliefs and teaches the Bible right along with each subject.

Hubby and I love this. We love the environment and the people. I loved seeing Lil Mister come home with Easter art projects that centered around the resurrection of Christ (at his age the crucifixion is a little too…much! We focus only on the life and resurrection, casually mentioning the death part as we read the story. We’ll focus more on that as he gets older!).

Still, though, on the last day of school before holiday his school report along with some awesome candies were in an adorable basket made into an bunny face from paper plates.

At home, during our Bible time, we read the story of the resurrection and how miraculous it was. But I still made an Easter basket and did an egg hunt over the weekend.

Am I confusing him?

A lot of people will argue with me and say that I am.

A lot of people will question what my answers will be when my boys start wondering how it all pieces together.

For now, Hubby Dearest and I are taking it holiday for holiday. We teach our sons the true meaning of Easter. They know about Jesus and why we celebrate his resurrection (well, they will know as they grow! Admittedly, they are quite small still!). I’m trying my best to teach my sons that they can have a personal relationship with God and Jesus by exemplifying that relationship in my own life.

But we teach them that this is also a time to celebrate! Easter is a celebration…not just a history lesson! What do balloons have to do with a birthday? So what does a bunny have to do with Easter? They are fun traditions we do, as a family because we’re celebrating Jesus’ life.

There are lots of stories of pagan traditions. There are links from the egg to rebirth. There are numerous ideals of how to link the two.

Quite simply, I don’t see the point in putting so much into it. God knows the place of our hearts. I want in my heart, for my children to know the point of Easter. I want them to know the significance of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. I want them to know to celebrate all of these things.

So, for me and my house, we will worship God. We will also do Easter egg hunts and put up Christmas trees! ;-)

Besides….where in the Bible does it say we must celebrate Easter? If you want to get technical…..

Shana..

Christmas Traditions

Did you have any Christmas traditions growing up? Where there any favourites?

I know that there are some things that have ground themselves into my very nature when it comes to holidays. Yet, living in South Africa, some of these are now hard to come by.

I’ve decided that I need to start creating some new traditions mixed with a little old to make the years memories with my children!

So today, as this post is scheduled and I will not be on my blog, I have taken a moment to jot down a few new traditions that I want to begin with my children! I hope all of you are enjoying a very special Christmas with your families!

 

1)    I will make homemade eggnog every year! I love this stuff and used to drink myself sick on it during the holidays! I will make it for my children as we don’t buy it here! We will drink ice cold eggnog throughout the December holiday! ;-)

2)    I read “Twas the Night Before Christmas” every Christmas Eve. I know I posted about the meaning of Christmas, but this is an adorable story that will remain a past time with my boys!

3)    Starting next year I want my boys to make handmade Christmas cards to send out to our family and friends each year. I love Christmas cards but feel that something hand made is so much more special!

4)    As the boys get older, we will donate to a charity each year. I’d love to find something local that is involved with children so my boys can experience giving to needy ‘friends.’

5)    We will listen/sing Christmas carols while setting up and decorating our tree (note to self: buy Christmas music!)

6)    We spend time each season focusing on why we celebrate Christmas and doing activities about the birth of Jesus Christ.

7)    I want to study with my boys (at an age appropriate level) the life of Christ each year from Christmas to Easter. We will read the stories and do art and fun things so that as they grow up they will know His life and teachings! (not that we don’t read our Bibles all year!)

8)    Christmas will always be spent with family!

 

It isn’t about the traditions really, but I want my boys to remember that this is a special time for us and that we need to be enjoying it and learning it and making the most of it!

I hope and pray you have the opportunity to do just that today!

Merry Christmas!

Shana..

Loss in spirit; Gain in Spirit

This weekend has my internal clock all messed up! I’ve done so well since coming home from the hospital at being in bed by a decent time. However, Friday night we had a braai with our parents and I only got home after midnight and then on Saturday we had a braai with friends at our house. Again, I was in bed after midnight.

So now it is Sunday and after 10 pm and I still cannot sleep.

I’m surely going to regret this! Lil Mister does not sleep past 5:30am very often and I highly doubt karma is so kind as to let it be tomorrow that he does! ;-)

It doesn’t help that I only got Lil Mister to sleep 15 minutes ago and I figure based on LJ’s last feed he should be awake in the next 15 minutes again.

Coffee...you are my best friend these days!

I’m still in shock that it is already Christmas. Yes, I realize it is still another day away, but really!

This will be my fourth Christmas in South Africa, but I can’t seem to find the spirit anymore. It hasn’t felt like Christmas since I moved here.

As I sit looking at our Christmas tree, I’m taken back to all the years spent celebrating with my family.

I miss the cold weather. I remember tracking through the rows that never ended through the cold and snow to find the ‘perfect family Christmas Tree.’ (Please envision the Clark Griswold Family Christmas Tree here!)

As a child I would fill my pockets and even stuff my coat full of the pine cones I would find along the way. I still love the smell of fresh pine!

We’d get home that afternoon and my mom would make hot chocolate (I’m positive now that I’m a parent that my mom and dad’s hot chocolates were spiked with vodka; otherwise they weren’t making it until that night!) and we’d listen to Christmas music while decorating the tree.

Really cheesy but that is what we did EVERY year!

I can’t understand why when I enter a mall; I don’t smell that sickening sweet scent of the roasted nuts. Nor do I feel it is right that there aren’t Christmas lights and decorations covering the streets and houses.

There are no night time drives to see the lights. There are no Salvation Army guys ringing their silly little bells. We aren’t bundled up watching endless reruns of the same Christmas movies. And there is no snow to wake up to on Christmas morning.

I feel like I’ve lost Christmas.

Then I found it again.

All of the sudden I realized how commercialized even I had let Christmas become to me.

I grew up being taught the true meaning of Christmas and was in every single Christmas pageant at church. I know the story by heart because it is the equivalents of thousands of years of prophecy come true. It is the entire reason for the season (sorry for the cheesy rhyme!).

Yet, even I have fallen victim to Hallmarks branding over the years. As I grew older and was able to apply the memory of scents, sounds, and images to the holiday, I somehow lost what was truly important.

Christmas is after all about Christ’s birth.

I know you’re like...duh!

But how easily I’d let that fall to the back burner while still living in the states. I’d grown so accustomed to the hoopla of the season that I’d grown cold to the meaning. I’d lost Christmas when I moved to South Africa because I’d lost the meaning of it many years before that.

I’m grateful for this now. As I sit preparing my children’s presents, I realized how blessed we are. I’m thankful to raise my children in a way that they won’t experience the extravaganza firsthand the way I did. I’m thankful that I will be able to focus more on the meaning of Christmas and teach my children why we celebrate the holiday in such a close and family oriented manner.

I’m thankful that I had to lose my Christmas spirit to be able to rejoice Christmas in the Spirit!

I will still read “The Night before Christmas” to my children on Christmas Eve. And we will continue to give presents and donate to charities during this time as well.

But I will take a little less time worrying about the lights on my front door and a little more time answering questions about ‘baby Jazus’ and his ‘farm birth’.

Shana..

Holiday Jealousy

Today, I’m going to rant. Today, I’m going to moan. Today, I’m going to ask for all of your sympathy. Today, I’m going to tear apart every American holiday!!!

Don’t get your panties in a bunch here. Stick with me!

If you didn’t know, I live in South Africa (jeeze why aren’t you with the picture yet??!!) Here we have lots of public holidays which are really just great excuses created by a government, who believes that a 15 minute tea break means 30 minutes, to give us more days off work…PAID! Oh it is lovely. Of those public holidays I believe that we celebrate Easter and Christmas with America. The other 3 holidays which were what my calendar revolved around as a child are NON EXISTENT. This I am very upset about. For this I get very heartbroken. And for this I am VERY jealous when I read all of the great food, clothing, and decorating ideas that come across ALL of the blogs I read!

Aren’t you even slightly concerned for my mental health? You all are killing me! You have no concern for the better of your fellow Americans living abroad! RAWR! (Sorry I really do love all of you!)

We will start with the most recently past holiday…Halloween! As a child I could not understand why on such an important day we were in school! Have any of your children professed the same confusion? I’m sure they have! It is a logic beyond a young minds comprehension. Halloween is just as important as our own birthday. I never knew the logistics or the background of it growing up as I did the other holidays. For me it was always about the costume (which is exactly the same as dress up play!) and the free candy! Candy is also just as good presents when you are 6! What also surpassed my logic well until the first Halloween rolled around in South Africa was that this IS NOT a holiday celebrated world wide. In fact, most don’t even consider it a holiday! It is a random day chosen to give permission to be someone your not and get away with antics you would never attempt in your work clothing! Why in the world would people not understand how important this is to human sanity???!?

South Africa is starting to come around and I’ll be damned (oh that’s right…DAMNED) if my children will miss this lovely excuse for CrAziNess their entire lives! Somehow, my small farming town in no where South Africa will realize the joys of this day. (Especially the moms who can get away with not dressing up but still getting chocolate by explaining to their children that parents must test the candy to make sure there isn’t anything dangerous! Oh my mom was clever!) I am getting involved and will be that crazy American woman who plans a Halloween party “for her kids” every year but actually just wants to give herself the prize for best costume in the adult category! (I may be quite a small girl but for this mom of two I automatically disqualify you if you are dressed as a slutty/exotic ANYTHING….can I hire a bouncer?)….

Ideas welcome for Halloween hits South Africa 2013!!!


The next holiday that I am sick to my stomach over is…duh duh duh…THANKSGIVING!! I have nothing to give thanks for on the last Thursday in November as no one here understand what the flip I’m talking about! (Okay I'm still thankful for so much in my life and will WILL {double promise will} write a post before Thanksgiving to fall into theme!) Nor do they understand that it is like an American tradition to have such a big dinner! No a BRAAI DOESN’T COUNT! We need a turkey that has been stuffed, the potatoes AND sweet potatoes. We need corn and rolls, and cranberry sauce, and beans, and all the ‘fixins’ (also explaining to South Africans why most Americans don’t actually say a g is tiring too!) I want a table that seats the whole family! I NEED to watch the Macy’s day parade (even if it is 4pm here and I’m watching via internet!). It is not just another excuse to put our crazy families together in one house for an entire day and see if Grandma White and Grandma Gray can agree on the texture of the mash while the men scream at the football! It is not an attempt to see if we will all emerge unscathed!

This was a day where we all were together. Yea, the kids fought, the men lounged, and the women ‘slaved’ away over the perfect dinner. You looked forward to your Aunts famous Pumpkin pie and your Grandmothers perfected baked beans. We all have that one special dish that we craved all year round but is only made on these special days!

I’ve started stock piling articles and ideas for how to teach my children about Thanksgiving. I feel that they are American too even though we live here. They need to know about the pilgrims and the Indians. They need to know about the history. They need to know about that silly looking cornucopia in the middle of the table and how peace was achievable (however short lived!). I believe that I am one of maybe a handful celebrating this beloved holiday across the world….but heck I can’t sit drooling over your pictures of dinner for the rest of my life now can I!?!?! (My biggest concern is how do I cook that much all on my own….my boys have to learn to cook and fast!)

The last holiday that is absolutely heartbreaking that I cannot celebrate is…..FOURTH OF JULY (hear Katy Perry’s Firework playing in the background…oh yea!) Try explaining that this is more than just a BBQ to a South African (Oh heck try explaining that a Braai and a BBQ are the same thing and that we don’t just grill hot dogs and hamburgers but steaks, and pork chops and just about anything else we think we can pull off!!)

One would think that a country who also fought off the British to gain freedom would understand the importance of such a day! You would think they would also bear pride in having a day that they could throw everything off, have bottle rocket wars, and shot the national anthem at the top of their lungs. But sadly…no. This country is lost at the concept of our grand firework displays, our 10 foot Uncle Sam’s on stilts, or the parades!

I miss trying to schedule the whole week to squeeze in as many firework shows as possible, meticulously planning what small towns are having their parades and when as to make sure I get to see them all! I miss the excitement as you lay out all the fireworks you’ve accumulated and debating the order in which they’re going to be lit (only to have, as it never fails, a mishap…like when your grandfather lays his lit lighter stick next to the box holding the grand finale and everything ignites…..or when someone gets a clever idea to string the poppers through the apple tree!!)

I miss the feeling that summer was finally in full swing as we rapidly approach the beginning of a new school year. I miss being proud to be an American and the pride that emanates from everyone you pass that day! Old Navy’s flag shits!!

Oh, in reality, I love South Africa. I truly do. I’m glad I live here and am proud of all this country has overcome in the last 100 years. I just can’t turn off the fact that I am American and I don’t want to! I love these holidays and the silly traditions that come with them. I miss the apple pies and down home country feel. I miss the American pride and attitude that the people in this country can’t understand and I can’t describe to someone who hasn’t felt it!

I want to incorporate our own traditions into the lives of my children in hopes to keep some of this
American-ness alive. I hope that they will one day get a chance to experience each of these holidays in the States so that they can understand these wacky ideas that come from their mother (who is creeping out their friends with spiderwebs in October and turkeys made from construction paper in November!).

I hope that as time goes by I won’t want to quit following all of you every year as you RUB IT IN MY FACE the joyous times you are having during the best holidays EVER created!! Just kidding!

Shana