Of two minds....

Today's post will be read by most of you on Dec 1.  (Some of my friends are already on Dec. 1.)  To me that is the official start of the Christmas season.  25 days until Christmas.  I am going to state up front "I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!!"  However, it is always littered with 10 billion triggers.  So I have thought of a way to deal with my desire to address the split personality of Christmas, the Bah-humbugs and the 'God bless us every one.'  There are the low lows and the high highs that all come together at Christmas.  Here's what I decided to do.  On the top, will be how I try to cope with stresses of Christmas.  At the bottom will be a poem, story or link to something I love about Christmas.  Being a multiple at Christmas time had some real advantages, there were also some major disadvantages.  Do you start to see how the duality goes? 

So for today I have a Stress diet to share: (I saw this years ago in an email.  It is in so many places I am guessing that it has achieved public domain status.)

Instructions for Stress Diet
BREAKFAST:
1/2 grapefruit
1 slice whole wheat toast
8 oz. skim milk

LUNCH:
4 oz. lean broiled chicken breast
1 cup steamed spinach
1 cup herb tea
1 Oreo cookie

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK:
The rest of Oreos in the package
2 pints Rocky Road ice cream, nuts, cherries and whipped cream
1 jar hot fudge sauce

DINNER:
2 loaves garlic bread
4 cans or 1 large pitcher Coke
1 large sausage, mushroom and cheese pizza
3 Snickers bars

LATE EVENING NEWS:
Entire frozen Sara Lee cheesecake (eaten directly from freezer)

RULES FOR THIS DIET:
1. If you eat something and no one sees you eat it, it has no calories.
2. If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, the diet soda cancels out the calories in the candy bar.
3. When you eat with someone else, calories don't count if you do not eat more than they do.
4. Food used for medicinal purposes NEVER counts, such as hot chocolate, brandy, toast and Sara Lee Cheesecake.
5. If you fatten up everyone else around you, then you look thinner.
6. Movie related foods do not have additional calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel. (Examples: Milk Duds, buttered popcorn, Junior Mints, Red Hots and Tootsie Rolls.)
7. Cookie pieces contain no calories. The process of breaking causes calorie leakage.
8. Things licked off knives and spoons have no calories if you are in the process of preparing something.
9. Foods that have the same color have the same number of calories. (Examples: spinach and pistachio ice cream; mushrooms and mashed potatoes.)
10. Chocolate is a universal color and may be substituted for any other food color.
11. Anything consumed while standing has no calories. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.
12. Anything consumed from someone else's plate has no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to his/her plate. (We ALL know how calories like to cling!)
Remember, "stressed" spelled backwards is "desserts."
This is just a joke, folks!

 And now for some fun....
I have links to making paper snowflakes:
http://www.instructables.com/id/3d-PAPER-SNOWFLAKE/
I made this one today.  I like how it turned out.  Just need paper, scissors, tape and staples:
http://www.squidoo.com/make-paper-snowflakes?utm_source=google&utm_medium=imgres&utm_campaign=framebuster 

The Glory and the Darkness