Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Switch-Witch

What comes to your mind when you hear the following words?

Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas

I'll tell you mine:

Halloween? Candy
Thanksgiving? Feast and pie!
Christmas? licorice caramels, fudge, gingerbread men, yummy breakfast...FOOD!

This is what I WISH would come into my mind:

Halloween: Carving pumpkins, dressing up, doing crafts
Thanksgiving: A day with family, turkey bowl, watching a movie
Christmas: The birth of Christ, thinking of thoughtful gifts to give, time with family, parties, music, Christmas movies, service

I've been worrying lately about the fat genes that Brad and I are passing on to our kids (my brother-in-law calls this fat potential). Brad and I changed our diets shortly after we were married to Whole Wheat everything (bread, pasta, brown rice, ect). We go all natural on what we can and have mostly eliminated any type of corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. We're usually pretty good about getting in our 5 or more fruits and veggies, and we exercise -- but we own up to these two facts:
1- We can throw down the "occasional" unhealthy meal (Brad) and a dessert (me) with the best of them, and
2- We are not naturally skinny, petite, or small boned people.

I do not want special occasions, especially the Holidays, to be focused on food, so this year we are instigating the switch witch. I read about this last year on my cousin, Angela's, blog, and thought it was brilliant. We'll go trick-or-treating, as usual, with our friends, tomorrow night. But after Nick goes to bed the Switch Witch is going to come and switch out his candy for a small toy and a book. In my head, this is going to work out splendidly. In reality, I think Nick is going to wake up the next morning, ask for his candy, and throw a fit when I explain who the Switch Witch is and what she did. I'll keep you posted...

Update: We thought it would be fun to share Nick's sickness with his this week! Brad had his turn on Monday and Tuesday, and then it was my turn yesterday and today. Hopefully everything is now on the up and up and we will all NEVER THROW UP AGAIN! :) Hope everyone else is healthy!

6 comments:

Kate said...

UGh... I'm SO sorry to hear that you and Brad caught that nasty bug! Hope it is all over with :)

I'm loving the switch witch idea! I'm going to pass along the idea to Tim and see what he thinks. I feel like food is such a battle with my boys already, I don't want candy to chime in too!

Love you!

The Stanford Bunch said...

I'm impressed! I am weak and looking forward to the candy my kids will collect tonight... =)

Ali J said...

That is an awesome idea!

MBurt said...

Good luck with that! I think a few pieces of candy with the toys and books would do the trick

Lori said...

so, how did it go? Maybe we'll give that a go next year!

Maggie said...

Good idea for next year! I especially like it if they don't know any different. Keep us posted on how it went. It IS hard to keep fun traditions and activities away from food.