HOLIDAY TRADITIONS? by Maureen McMahon

We all have holiday traditions, some universal, some personal. Some years ago I started a tradition of painting an egg each Christmas – to give a picture-image of what happened in that particular year. Some are more creative than others – like the one with all eight of our very first chickens, or the one with our first protea bush.

The tradition of making a New Year’s resolution is universal. Don’t we all see many more joggers, bike riders and gym attendees after New Year? Cigarette companies probably see a massive drop in sales for the two weeks after New Year. Of course, resolutions rarely succeed, but it’s a nice tradition.

This year, a couple days after New Year’s Day, my husband and I went to a house-warming for new neighbours. It’s one of those events you automatically think: “How can I get out of this?” Since it was an unexpected invitation, and since it was delivered in person, and I had no immediate excuse on hand. So we went. It was wonderful. We spent a great evening communing with many neighbours we’d previously only waved and smiled to in passing.

Unfortunately, as always, I managed to do a bit of entertaining I hadn’t intended to do. This time it was taking a nosedive off the small step from our neighbor’s entry hall into their living room. Thankfully, I wasn’t carrying a glass of red wine or strawberry punch to stain their brand new, light-blue carpet. But I did manage to badly sprain one wrist, bruise the opposite hand and wrench a knee.

Not wanting to embarrass the hostess, however, I leapt up and assure her I was “…just fine!”, hoping blood wasn’t spurting from severed arteries to stain their couch. Every part of my body throbbed and I felt as if I’d need a gurney to get me out to my car. But I smiled, and chatted and nodded inanely for another ten minutes before I was able to make my escape.

While I couldn’t use my right hand and was hobbling on my left knee, I was happy enough and certain everything would be fine by morning.

Unfortunately, in the morning, the previous evening’s ‘anaesthetic’ (read: wine) had worn off and I could barely move. I couldn’t use my right hand at all. This is not good news for an author and online instructor with a slew of 10,000 word assignments coming in for critique. We managed to get in to the doctor, and he sent me for x-rays of my wrist. While the hand wasn’t apparently broken, I was to wear a splint for at least two weeks. So much for my New Year’s resolution to swim daily.

Last year at this time, I fell and broke my left elbow. I’m thinking perhaps I’ve inadvertently started a new ‘holiday tradition’.

CHRISTMAS CHEER by Maureen McMahon

What’s happened to Christmas cheer? Christmas and New Year have now come and gone. Why is it they seem to come around so quickly as we get older, yet take forever to come around when we’re young? I remember sneaking down the stairs at night on Christmas Eve to gaze in awe at the piles of wrapped boxes. There was a golden glow, with the snow in the deep black of night beyond the windows, and only the tree-lights shining. It was magical.

Here in Australia the feel is different. It’s hot, to start, and usually green. The gifts are very different. No sleds, mittens or electric blankets, but beach balls, surfboards and air conditioners.

This year, due to unprecedented drought conditions, there was no green – only the yellow, brown and cream of dead vegetation and the reddish-pink dust. Most of the trees, bar gums and pines, are leafless skeletons. Bushes and shrubs are stripped and bare. The irony of a red-coated-fur-trimmed, bearded, booted, fat man in a sleigh landing on our searing-hot roof to come down a chimney is ludicrous. But Australia hasn’t changed the picture of Santa. They’ve stuck tenaciously to his traditional northern climate image.

Christmas has come and gone, now, and I still wonder about the Christmas cheer. Why is Sanda always saying ‘Ho, ho, ho!”? Doesn’t he realize what a huge amount of work he has to put in each and every December?

I succumbed to my usual last minute panic over gifts, money, time etc. I ranted about having to write the annual newsletter for cards, plan the meals, schedule the events etc. etc. But I also discovered having adult children can be handy. While they don’t patter down the hall and gasp in awe at the delights under the tree anymore, they’re great in a perceived crisis, and will take charge of many responsibilities previously left up to me. Of course, when they pat me on the shoulder and say: “Don’t worry, Mum, I’ll get the dinner.” and “Mum, it’s okay, I’ll help with the cards.” and “Dad and I can go find a tree.” I know I should feel relief and blissful relaxation. Instead, I feel a sinking sense of redundancy, and dissolve into tears babbling that the ‘magic of Christmas’ is gone.

So, perhaps Christmas cheer is all a state of mind. Perhaps if I turn off my automatic worry button, put my mind on cruise control and take deep breaths while droning ‘Ohhhmmmmmmmmm”, Christmas will change back to the magical holiday of my youth. Or perhaps I should simply take up drinking and hope my liver survives.What’s happened to Christmas cheer? Christmas and New Year have now come and gone. Why is it they seem to come around so quickly as we get older, yet take forever to come around when we’re young? I remember sneaking down the stairs at night on Christmas Eve to gaze in awe at the piles of wrapped boxes. There was a golden glow, with the snow in the deep black of night beyond the windows, and only the tree-lights shining. It was magical.

Here in Australia the feel is different. It’s hot, to start, and usually green. The gifts are very different. No sleds, mittens or electric blankets, but beach balls, surfboards and air conditioners.

This year, due to unprecedented drought conditions, there was no green – only the yellow, brown and cream of dead vegetation and the reddish-pink dust. Most of the trees, bar gums and pines, are leafless skeletons. Bushes and shrubs are stripped and bare. The irony of a red-coated-fur-trimmed, bearded, booted, fat man in a sleigh landing on our searing-hot roof to come down a chimney is ludicrous. But Australia hasn’t changed the picture of Santa. They’ve stuck tenaciously to his traditional northern climate image.

Christmas has come and gone, now, and I still wonder about the Christmas cheer. Why is Sanda always saying ‘Ho, ho, ho!”? Doesn’t he realize what a huge amount of work he has to put in each and every December?

I succumbed to my usual last minute panic over gifts, money, time etc. I ranted about having to write the annual newsletter for cards, plan the meals, schedule the events etc. etc. But I also discovered having adult children can be handy. While they don’t patter down the hall and gasp in awe at the delights under the tree anymore, they’re great in a perceived crisis, and will take charge of many responsibilities previously left up to me. Of course, when they pat me on the shoulder and say: “Don’t worry, Mum, I’ll get the dinner.” and “Mum, it’s okay, I’ll help with the cards.” and “Dad and I can go find a tree.” I know I should feel relief and blissful relaxation. Instead, I feel a sinking sense of redundancy, and dissolve into tears babbling that the ‘magic of Christmas’ is gone.

So, perhaps Christmas cheer is all a state of mind. Perhaps if I turn off my automatic worry button, put my mind on cruise control and take deep breaths while droning ‘Ohhhmmmmmmmmm”, Christmas will change back to the magical holiday of my youth. Or perhaps I should simply take up drinking and hope my liver survives.

My weight loss journey

Some of you may know that I lost 95 pounds about 4 years ago. I had my weight loss journey journaled on my website, which brilliant me, lost when my site crashed.

Also, brilliant as a I am, I've allowed myself to regain 30 pounds. Yikes! That's still 65 pounds less than I started out, but oh my god, it's so easy to regain. Just blink and voila! You can be four sizes larger.

I had been pushing a size 22 and then got down to a size 6. Now I'm back up to a 12.

Obviously, I got way too smug. At first I blamed Hurricane Wilma. Hurricane stress is a great thing to blame bad eating habits on. Of course, after Wilma struck and our power was out for weeks, all the Chinese restaurants managed to stay open, and a goodly number of pizza places, so that it was so much easier and a whole lot more comforting to eat Chinese takeout and pizza than eating out of tin cans and grilling chicken - every day. Of course Pollo Tropical was one of the first places to reopen, too, and I LOVE fried plantains, so when we got off work early daily, I swung by Pollo Tropical almost every evening.

Okay, so I'm TERRIBLE!

I got hold of myself to a point after that. We put our then 11 year old into taekwondo for behavior modification and when they told us that three other family members could take class also for the same price, my daughters and I joined. It's great exercise and I'm now a blue belt, just four belts away from becoming a black belt.

But ya know what? Even if you exercise a lot and eat wrong, you gain weight. Especially on the days you can't exercise as usual.

I love taekwondo (tkw from now on for short). Oh yeah, I love it when my son pukes on the floor after too much exertion and the instructor blames me that he threw up - like excuse me, how could I make him throw up or why would I want him to? Or when my lungs feel like they're about to explode after 100 jumping jacks. Or when my wrists feel like every bone is breaking every time my partner kicks the board I'm holding for her. Or when my instructor yells, "The other right foot, Mrs. Hopper!" (Yeah, I'm blond sometimes). My ultimate favorite (well, second only to my son puking all over the mat and yours truly having to clean it up) is when my daughters kick me (HARD) in the back during sparring. Oh yeah, I LOVE tkd! Surprisingly, after my lungs recover and my asthma attack dissipates, I really do feel better, more nimble, and younger. Amazing!

I've also rejoined Weight Watchers, but it's a lot more difficult the second time around. I feel less motivated. Size 12 doesn't seem as bad as size 20 or 22. Okay, so I'd rather be a size 8, or 10. Mainly, I don't want to keep going up up and away! It's soooooo easy to gain. But when the hunger monster strikes at night (I'm a nighttime eater), I'm such a powder puff.

Today, my 16 year old and I went to the gym and I walked 3 miles on the treadmill and biked 8 miles, burning about 400 calories. Pretty darn good! I'm proud of myself. I would have biked at least 2 more miles and I really wanted to stay another hour working out if Missy wouldn't have been glaring at me, her way of saying "I'm borrrrrrred, Mommy!" (she gets bored sooooooooooooo easily)

So I'm publicly flagellating myself and vowing that I will lose at least 20 pounds (and keep them off) from this point, even if I have to walk an hour nightly after tkd, AND snack on apples and fruit. I was told that I was too skinny and drawn when I had reached the 95 pound mark.

If it's not obvious, I will state that my main concern is to be healthy and stay young and agile for as long as possible. I never want to go back to feeling 70 years old again, even when I'm 70.

I will journal my weight loss battle here.

Before, it was so easy to lose. I was so ANAL, so driven, that the pounds seemed to melt off. So this time, I fear, it will be a lot tougher, a lot more like the average weight loss warrior.

Anyone with me?

Anchors away!!!

Chats and Newsletters and Listservs, Oh My

I have a question to ask all you readers out there, and I'm anxious to hear your responses. What kind of publicity from authors do you like best? What is most likely to make you run out (or surf over) and buy that author's book? Assuming, of course, the book is of interest to you in the first place.

I have a newsletter I send out periodically; I maintain a website; I have blogs; I do chats; I participate on listservs; I run contests; and I offer free bookmarks and other promotional material. I even do the occasional booksigning or conference. But in the end, it's difficult, if not impossible, to tell what works and what doesn't.

So I'd really like to hear what works best for YOU. And while you're at it, is there something you'd like to see from an author that you haven't seen yet? I'm always interested in new ideas!

Liz

What A Weird Winter

The weather this winter sure has been unusually mild here in New Hampshire. We've had exactly ONE snowfall, of less than an inch, the Saturday before New Year's, and an ice storm the next day. As for winter, that's it! Other than that it's been in the 40s or 50s, sunny, very pleasant but definitely not winter-like.

I was pretty disappointed not to have a white Christmas. This is supposed to be a winter wonderland! So what the heck is going on?

My personal theory is Global Warming. You know, greenhouse gasses holding in the pollutants, melting iceburgs, the whole thing. And the El Nino effect doesn't help.

Not that I'm a scientific type, as I'm sure you can tell by my disjointed meanderings above. ;-) I just know enough to be dangerous. But...global warming IS dangerous. Besides the lack of a white Christmas, it raises ocean levels that causes flooding, creates tsunamis, hurricanes of unbelievable strength, droughts in some places and torrential rains in others. Not a good thing. And eventually, if it goes on unchecked, I suppose it could make whole regions of the world uninhabitable.

I heard an expert in this topic speak once, and he said if each of us only makes one little change, that can do a world of good. He suggested as that one change the simple act of replacing our standard lightbulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Check them out here: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls

So I say, go for it! It's a simple change to make and every time you flip on that light switch, you'll feel good about yourself. Who knows, by next year we just might get that white Christmas!

Liz