How to bounce back from a weekend of partying? Vegetables! Lots of vegetables, in fact, yummy and so nutritious. The refined foods and alcohol present at every party wreak total havoc with my appetite. I was a hungry girl yesterday but I'm back to normal today. Thanks in no small part to roasted eggplant, sauteed cabbage, baked squash, steamed artichoke, raw spinach, and tomato soup, all prepped ahead so I have easy access all week. Lots of water and green tea help too - good depuffers. Fresh berries and cantaloupe for something sweet. And fresh air and exercise, of course, to put some color back in the ol' cheeks (nice days yesterday and today, huh? Not very Christmas-y, but lovely nonetheless). By tomorrow, I'll be good as almost-new!

Not that I had THAT much to recover from. I actually didn't make it to our neighborhood Yule Celebration last night - too tired, I'm a wuss! Sigh. I had so much fun with the Baseball Moms here on Friday. Everyone looked so beautiful! And brought the most amazing tasties to share! The amount of food we had - obscene, actually. Brownies, cookies, cheeses, dips, spreads, crackers, chips - all of it - and more! Everyone went wild over Sonja's gorgeous cheeseball, chock full o' pecans and scallions and topped with fruit jelly (sounds strange, but it's an incredible sweet complement to the soft, salty cheese and crunchy nuts; recipe posted in comments, below). Met some fun new-to-our-group moms, got to catch up with our "core" group, covered lots of gossip, laughed my ass off - the usual! Thanks ladies!

Little break from the festivities at least the first half of this week. Then back at it this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Ouch, says my butt. Doh!