I Gave You Fat for Christmas

25^th December 2011

Dear Cassi,

Well, I guess for the expanse of the western world it’s still Christmas day a time that brings joy and love so for folks and leaves others out it the cold. If there were only so much joy in the world this would make a peck more sense to me, given that the joyful spend their time soaking up the happy like sponges.

    

I spent the day baking personally. Corn bread muffins were my holiday gift to those folks on my block this year, and I made them in what variety I could. The blueberry and the cranberry were traditional picks for the time of year. I made a few with ginger which give them a nice golden color and a good amount with cinnamon with makes them looks dull, but they taste good.

    

The folks on my block gave back some. I found the normal array of fresh Mexican food, chocolate, candy, and cookies. One of the houses on my gift list always gives my brother a five dollar bill when he comes by with gifts. That makes me wonder, but I pay it little mined as baking is what I like about this practice.

    

You have to wonder why we as a people tend to give out unhealthy food for holidays. In some cases people brag about how bad it is for them and then give it out to their friends as if heart disease was the greatest gift to human kind.

    

I imagine no one would be thrilled to have salad for Christmas, but in today’s world that would be the better gift. I grant that I gave every one of these folks something I made with my own hands and in return normally got nothing, secondly got store bought, and in the rarest case got handmade.

    

Still, it stands to reason that I’m not doing any of these folks a favor with handing them something loaded with sugar and starch. I do this because of tradition but is there a better way?

Stay safe, Cassi,

Richard Leland Neal