Day 20 Prepping for the Holidays!

Phew, this is my 4th post this morning, I am playing catch up, for my other posts, keep on reading.....

Today's prompts, I didn't like too much, so I am going with the bonus prompt, Prepare for the Holidays.

Holidays with our family and extended family take a lot of prep.

Kortnie has T1D, she can in essence eat anything, but the holidays are filled with carbs - sweets and starches.  She loves the cakes, cookies, jellos, stuffing, rolls, mashed taters, caramel corn, homemade candies, the list goes on and on.  Whenever we are going to a party or family event or special dinner I have to talk to her about portion size and giving up some things for other things.  Often we bring take home containers so that she can bring some treats home for later so she can enjoy 2 or 3 things at the event and bring the other stuff home to try later.  By the Way, Fudge is the devil as far as Kortnie and her blood sugars are concerned, I hate when fudge comes out, it's so good, she wants it, I want it, and it's still something I haven't figured out how to bolus for, we'll try again this year!  My husband's family likes jello salad, but full on sugar jello is a bit of a no for Kortnie, she can have it, but I'd rather she have sugar free, so I always make her a special just for her sugar free mandarin orange jello. 

Brian, my husband, has this crazy allergy type thing.  He gets migraines, we've figured out some triggers, like extra creamy chocolate, Cadbury and other Swiss chocolates, those are easy to avoid.  Another trigger is meat, especially poultry this is cooked on a bone.  Like chicken or turkey cooked bone-in, we think that the bone marrow or something, cooks down and gets into the meat and makes him sick.  Cow meat too, but not as bad as poultry.  This means for him at the holidays we have to buy a more expensive, turkey breast, and cook it separate in the crock pot.  This also means that he can't have gravy made from turkey drippings, so we make him a separate gravy from packets and his turkey breast drippings.  Also, he can't have stuffing cooked inside the turkey, so we make separate casserole of stuffing for him.  I like to boil down a turkey carcass, make broth and make a yummy turkey soup, but nope he can't have that either.  At Christmas, we buy him a ham slice, cut out the little round bone and fry it up for him, no big spiral ham for him!  He's a pain in the butt, but we love him.   Lately we've noticed our oldest daughter gets migraines, so this year, she'll be eating Brian's special stuff with him and we'll see if that helps her.

Brian's Grandma Anna is lactose free and gluten free.  She has Ceilacs and Lactose intolerance.  No cream, butter, rolls, stuffing, etc for her.  Brian's mom will make her a special bowl of potatoes with no butter, a special bowl of veggies with no butter, a Gluten free cornbread stuffing, usually a special dessert, no butter on the turkey to make it brown, etc.  Brian's mom doesn't like any of the GF or DF stuff, so she just makes everything separate, the traditional stuff for everyone else and special GF and DF stuff for Grandma.  It makes more work for her, but I think she loves it. 

This year we are traveling about an hour away for Thanksgiving, the kids will stay the night at their Grandma's while Brian and I go do the Black Friday thing.  So the kids will be gone from home for about 36 hours.  This means packing extra stuff for Kortnie, just in case, test strips to last her that long, batteries for her devices, extra site changes and cartridge changes, juice boxes, making sure her phone battery is charged, plus clothes and toiletries for all 3 kids!

For Christmas we are travelling to Nevada, about a 14 hour drive, we'll be gone for a week.  Packing clothes and stuff for all 3 kids, plus Brian and I, warm winter clothes, toiletries, Christmas presents for the kids and family we are going to visit, a whole bag of Diabetes supplies, stuff for kids to do on the long car ride, a cooler with snacks and drinks to save money on stopping to eat, the list goes on and on, I have already started thinking about what I need to pack and making lists so I don't forget things. 

It's all worth it though, the crazy allergies and extra cooking, the extra packing and driving.  It is all worth it to spend time at the holidays with family.