Undressing a Thanksgiving Turkey

Tis the season to be fat. Let's face it--the holidays are about consumption, including and ESPECIALLY food. I am the main Momma, I am the turkey cooker, the main cheese whiz, the banana peeler, and the person who is responsible for creating the aroma in the house that makes my family smile and feel like the good old days. My dressing is what my kids crave, Mother's sweet potato recipe is lovingly resurrected in her memory, and Anna Beth's chocolate pie is cooked only twice a year and this is one of them. The dance of the sugar plum fairy plays on my TV, Hershey kisses ring like a bell-choir on the tube, catalogs fill my mailbox with every confection known to woman on every page. I really don't wince when I look at chocolate candy anymore--that is sooooo.....yesterday. (sigh) However, I want to cook all of those wonderful holiday sweets and treats that makes my family smile, and then makes me argue with myself in the middle of the night in front of the refrigerator. Seeing the smiles on my family's faces just doesn't cut it for me.
I love watching the Martha Stewart show around holidays. One year, I watched her show at Easter and spent the next week making individual Easter baskets out of pipe cleaners for my Easter table! After that, I wouldn't let myself watch her again. I also love to watch Mad Hungry and the diva of coronary artery disease herself, Paula Dean. I love to cook for the family at holidays, plain and simple. I have slowly allowed myself back on the Martha Stewart show, and saw her make the finest apple pie in the world yesterday. Oh, how autumnal, how lovely, how fragrant! Certainly there is nothing wrong with that! It is just a shame that it contains the sugar-drug that will set me off on cravings and set me up for failure. Evil, evil Martha, with that trim waist and that herb garden. It's plain not fair.
But, it is what it is.
Again I must have a plan. I will cook the fragrant tasties, and I will enjoy my Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I will add some really tasty healthy foods that lend themselves well to the holidays, like.....uh.....well.....let me get back to you on that. The main thing is, I MUST MUST MUST not keep leftovers this year. Inside I hear my voice whining, "but I just looooove Broccoli Rice Casserole and I only get it once a year and I love to eat it for breakfast the next day." That is one of those problem foods for me. You know what I mean, the kind that sings to you, the kind that you can't stop thinking about. I talked to a friend today who just had open heart surgery and told me how he unsuccessfully tried twice to slip out of the bed to stand at the freezer and eat ice cream out of the carton last night. Both times, his wife intervened and he didn't get ice cream. OK, like that is ever going to happen to me! I could get up and fry chicken and Dennis wouldn't know it. The dogs would, but they would be delighted. Dogs don't care if you are fat.
But I care if I am fat, so I have to choose between the holiday food and the Svelte Angel. I will enjoy my Thanksgiving dinner, every bite, without guilt. Then no matter how many children are starving in China, I will put the leftovers in the trash, padlock the refrigerator and throw away the key. I promise, because I am worth it.