... I felt I should mention it in light of the media's relatively
recent (although currently subsided) drumbeat of the demise of low
carbing in the US. Traditional Christmas Eve dinner was at my cousin
Sheila's house. Her husband, Mike, fortunately enough, had discovered
low-carbing himself about a year ago.

   Although I've apparently lost over 50 pounds thus far in the past 8
months or so, he's dropped nearly twice as much over the last year (and
he's about a foot shorter than I am). Although my cousin was never that
chunky, even she's gotten on board, joined her husband, and dropped
some weight herself. They both look incredible.

   Coincidentally enough, my father-in-law, who is Christmasing in
Chicago right now, has also been low-carbing for the past year, and has
lost at least 30-40 pounds himself. In short, although Atkins has gone
into bankruptcy and the diet fad industry has largely moved on, a large
portion of the men in my family have been LC-ing over the past year,
and have been damn successful at it. Funny that.

   Oh, and yes, Christmas dinner was great. Started with appetizers,
which emphasized aged cheeses (bread optional), fresh veggies and ranch
dip, and bacon-wrapped dates (I only had three). The appetizer was a
mushroom-stuffed tomato with mozarella cheese baked on top. Dinner was
several huge racks of barbecued lamb, two kinds of sausage, and a
spinach-feta stew of some kind that was to **die** for.

   The best part was dessert. There were cookies for the non LC-ers in
my family, but the piece de resistance was a gigantic mountain of
berries... blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries,
with a huge bowl of lightly sweetened whipped cream for those who
desired it.

   Absolutely fabulous Christmas Eve dinner. Hope everyone else's
weekend was wonderful as well.