For the last two nights I’ve sat up wrapping presents, working on projects and cooking. To keep myself awake and motivated I’ve told myself I need a steady diet of Christmas caramels, hot cocoa and cookies.

I’m now having a heart to heart with my expanding waist and not feeling very good about it. I know better, but I figure I’ll be so disgruntled with my new “look” that I’ll start exercising and walking at the first dawn of the new year.

Well maybe not at the FIRST dawn of the New Year as I may be going to bed not too long before that first dawn..but at that second dawn - watch out!

I’m not alone. I’m sure there are many people eating too much of the good food taking residence in our kitchens right about now. I was amused today when I read that there’s a method to our collective eating madness.

Professor Patrick O’Donnell of Glasgow University’s psychology department states that the whole point of Christmas is to make us feel better.

“Humans evolved in a tropical environment and spread out to cooler areas, where the long winter nights, cold and reduced vitamin D and serotonin levels all made for a negative experience,” he says. “So midwinter feasts developed to boost individual and group morale.”

Of course the birth of Christ is why we gather but it would seem that, according to the professor, the extent of our festivities has been influenced by our need to bring light and joy into each other’s lives at this cold time
of year.

Without a doubt a good dinner and conversation with friends and family can do so much to pull us out of our own difficult circumstances, whatever they may be, for at least a little while. That’s a wonderful thing to happen to those who may need that “breather” to gain some perspective on their current set of challenges or particular personal “funk.”

So with that I say let’s not fret that much about the expanding waist line. We know it’s not good for our bodies and that’s why come January we’ve got a new obsession - g-e-t-t-i-n-g i-n t-o s-h-a-p-e!