Many know by now my deep love for the holidays that occur in October, November, and December. I proudly wore my Halloween costume to church this year, and I have spoken openly about my love for pumpkins. I celebrated the first snow with some sparkly snowflake earrings from my mother-in-law, and purchased a pair of ice skates at the Fall Fair. Gifts from many of you are holiday highlights: a brilliant yellow and orange pumpkin, a big container of warming chili, and a perfectly beautiful poinsettia that I cradled on a train ride home last December. If I ever lose the shivers of joy that I experience in the fall and winter months, I am certain I will no longer be “me”. Perhaps it stems from the lingering child in me…but I hope to never lose that, either.
One perk (among the many!) about the holidays are the wonderful leftovers that crowd the refrigerator after Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. I believe that leftovers are VERY underappreciated! The idea of “leftovers” in any area of life can cause many of us to turn up our noses. Most of the time, things just aren’t as good the second time around…and most of the time, the “leftovers” are scraped up from the remnants of something that used to be better, bigger, and more important. But I love leftovers. If I attend a holiday meal at someone else’s home, I will still often make my own holiday meal at my home, just to have the leftovers!
The year that Ben and I got married, I started a little blog called “Kitchen Adaptable”, celebrating my love for messing with traditional recipes and making them my own. If you look up this blog, you will find that I have not written a single sentence in it for over a year! Maybe someday. Anyway, as I was researching for this blog, I found a recipe that I just COULD NOT improve upon. Everything about it was perfect. Beautifully cooked vegetables, nutty wild rice, and a not-too-thick / not-too-thin creamy broth were combined with leftover Thanksgiving turkey to make an incredible skinny turkey and wild rice soup. I didn’t put this recipe on the blog because I hadn’t “adapted” it. It was wonderful the way that it was.
The holiday season demands my time, attention, and focus. With so much to do, so much to enjoy, and so much to prepare, many areas of my life such as self-care, godly habits, and prayers become neglected. The enjoyments and preparations get the best of my time, and my own self-care and religious practices get the leftovers. But don’t despair. If you’ve been reading carefully, you’ll remember that soup. That delicious, perfect soup. And guess what? It was made of leftovers.
Some things are going to slip by the wayside this holiday season. I will not chide you to try to change your habits or to revamp your daily “menu” of plans. Everyone knows that those types of changes are next to impossible at a time like this. Instead, I will remind you that even the leftovers are valuable. Those little bits of time at the end of the day when you whisper a prayer to God, turn negative self-talk into positive, or write a list of things you are thankful for can make all the difference in the world. And it’s OK that it’s the leftovers. Leftovers are good too. Oh…and here’s the recipe if you want it. 🙂 https://theskinnyfork.com/blog/skinny-turkey-wild-rice-soup