I don't think it is traditional everywhere, though it has been for us the last few years. My grandfather has a farm where he raises his own pigs, so every year he fixes several "Boston Butts" (I don't actually know what that is! ) and makes pulled pork and barbecue. We tend to have it for every gathering these days. They are also making fried cube deer steak, though I'll probably avoid that. Too salty last time...

Here in So Cal the traditional Christmas Eve dinner is tamales. But we're having a Honey Baked Ham.

Sounds yummy, Shannon (the pork, not the deer steak--poor Bambi! yes, i know that makes me a hypocrit that I'll eat cows and chickens but not deer).

What kind of tamales do you usually have Allison? We're having traditional pork/red chile ones, but one year we made blue corn/goat cheese tamales which were delicious!

The wife of the guy who comes around and washes cars here at work makes four different tamales: chicken, pork, beef and jalapeno with cheese. They're all really good. She was selected to be one of the booths at this year's tamale festival which was held a couple weeks ago. I benefit as we often can buy the tamales for a good 5 or six months out of the year!

Not where I grew up outside of Boston. We always had seafood, often oyster or lobster chowder, on Christmas Eve. Tonight I have shrimp and scallops to do something with. I'll be browsing some recipe sites in a few minutes. I have today off and managed to sleep til nearly 9 - even with DH up, eating and leaving for a 9 am yoga class.

B - steel cut oats, walnuts, raisins, skim milk; ww toast;
S - hmmm, I'm downstairs avoiding the cookies and fudge in the kitchen, but if I make a run there I can grab a banana
L - salad with left over salmon
S - hmmmm, probably some yogurt with strawberries
D - aforementioned seafood

Sarah grew up with Christmas tamales. I never had that...we always had steak on Christmas. Some form of beef filet is our tradition.

Hope everyone is having a nice week!

I won't talk about yesterday. It was a lovely day and I ate whatever I wanted without guilt.

Today, however, is NOT Christmas. It is back to normal.

half bagel with pnb, protein shake
1 hr gym
protein shake
turkey and beans
cottage cheese and fruit
fish and veggies

Tons of water! My face feels swollen from all the sodium yesterday.

Amen to that Midwife!

B - cheerios w/skim milk, 1/2 banana, small cinnamon roll
S - 1/2 protein bar (need to replenish my yogurt/fruit stock at work)
L - leftover spaghetti, with homemade sauce
S - ?
D - leftover shrimp and scallops from Christmas Eve.

Midwife, I'm with you, too! I refuse to feel guilt over my eating yesterday, even though I'm pretty sure it approached 2700 calories... (Have I mentioned that DHs ex-wife is an amazing baker and sends us stuff periodically, plus a big gift bag of assorted goodness at the holidays? Oh my gosh, it sucks the willpower right out...) I did however, do 45 mins of yoga and 30 mins on the ellpitical yesterday while DH & MIL were at the ex'es for Christmas morning. (I don't need to get started on why I've not been invited to that gathering in the three years DH & I have been involved, so the workout helped vent that anger. DSS is almost four, so I hope that this year he started to wonder why I wasn't there...)

Today hasn't been great, but not as bad as yesterday:

L: Zaxby's (three chicken fingers, about ten tater chips)
S: sugar cookie
S: protein milk shake after workout
D: ground white turkey tacos, maybe rice, maybe not
S: Kashi Go Lean

Exercise: Done! 35 mins strenght training, 20 mins kickboxing

I haven't stepped on the treadmill since Wednesday (will be back on it tomorrow morning).

B~egg white egg mcmuffin
S~ww toast with lf cheese
L~quesadilla
S~probably nothing
D~leftover lasagnas, salad

I'm going to totally re-commit to losing on January 5th. Until then we have too much celebrating to do to make it work right. I'll keep my eye on portions until then.