Slippery Slopes.

Wow, the holidays are difficult, aren't they? They're fun and all that, but they are tricky to navigate. Food is everywhere and it is delicious. Stress is everywhere, too. In the midst of all of that fun and frivolity is a lot of work. Shopping, commitments, baking, snacking ... whew, that made me tired just writing about it.

Last week I hosted a dinner party. My first ever. Can you believe that? An almost 50-year-old woman who has never invited a group of friends over for something besides pizza? Well, when God was handing out gifts, he skipped giving me the entertaining thing. Anyway, in anticipation of this event I cleaned, put up Christmas decorations, moved furniture around and cooked. I made a pork tenderloin and my signature dish (my only dish, really) — something called "Hot Potato Salad." It's a recipe handed down to me from my mother and I'm the only one in our family who makes it. Not that other's can't, but for some reason it has become mine. It's about the most fattening, carby thing in the world. And it is delicious.

So the night of the party came around and people showed up on time and drank and snacked, ate dinner and then dessert. We laughed over our white elephant gifts and all in all, it was a successful event. And, there was lots of Hot Potato Salad leftover. I was planning on taking it over to my niece's house. She was out of town for Thanksgiving and missed that round of it. But, I forgot it, and so there it was in the refrigerator. Beckoning to me.

I had a small bowl. Very good.

The next evening, after work, I checked out my dinner options. Pork roast, check. Wait a minute, wait a minute — there was that Hot Potato Salad.

I ate it cold.

I do that sometimes. It's a fault of mine, and I admit it. It was very good cold. Some foods are like that. I  like cold pizza, too. Weird, I know.

Anyway, before I knew it, the leftovers were gone and I ate them. Oh, no worries, I corrected my insulin to compensate, but it really was carb overload. What can you do? It's the Holidays for cryin' out loud. Today was our company Christmas party. I ate lasagna, a bread stick and cheesecake. And you know what? No apologies. It's the Holidays!

In the past such indiscretions would have lead to serious problems, but I don't see that happening this time. I'm paying attention to what I eat. And, I'm not throwing in the towel after eating a cookie or some such thing. That's old behavior.

Besides, January is just around the corner, and everyone will be too busy watching their own diets to pay too much attention to me.