How Do Holidays Change With LPLD: Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  We are in the midst of our 12 days of celebrating.  This is how we do it with LPLD, maybe it will inspire you for however you celebrate in December, and throughout the year.

We spent the month of December making a batch or two of cookies each weekend, and saving them (in tins, outside in the cold to keep them fresh) for Christmas Eve.  A plate of that variety of cookies serves us as gifts for teachers, landlords, etc, as well as dessert for Christmas Eve and many days after.  A few cookies in front of an (electric) fireplace while singing Christmas carols is a perfect blend of treat and family-strengthening memory-maker for us.  At some point, we also like to have a birthday cake for Jesus, which is typically angel food cake, served with strawberries (previously frozen, it is December, after all).

For stocking stuffers, this year the girls got a container of Mike and Ike's each, which they polished off in a few short hours.  Otherwise, they get bubble bath, hair ties, band aids, stickers, temporary tattoos, pretty stationary, and/or jewelry for their stockings.  We have a steady supply of (fat free!) candy canes of various flavors on the Christmas tree for bonus treats.  In the future, we might put apples, oranges, or (low fat) granola bars in stockings, since it's hard to get anyone to eat breakfast on such an exciting morning, anyway.  But that's all the sweet treats we provide for the season!  Christmas lunch this year was a smorgasbord of snacks laid out, including a can of high-quality crab, shrimp, cocktail sauce, fat free cheese, tastey farm bread with balsamic vinegar, and carrot sticks.  For dinner we had prime rib, roast beets, and sweet potatoes.  After cold walks or bike rides outside, we are pretty easily swayed to pass out hot cocoa made with skim milk and chocolate syrup.

Now that we've done this for a few years, there certainly doesn't feel like much of a sacrifice in our family to have plenty of delicious LPLD options for the holidays.  I hope it feels like that for you and yours, too, and that you finish out 2018 with plenty of joy and relaxation!