December 25, 2023

Merry Christmas! Consuming ultra processed foods do not generate the hormones that make you feel full. Junk food doesn't satiate. Engineered food causes metabolic disease? My journal is going to be all about NPR shows if they keep broadcasting gems like this. Ultra processed people. Food that isn't food. Industrial produced edible substances. Heh. Maybe that is why I only get satiated when I eat fish or oatmeal while in jail and prison. The food is sub-par. My family raised me on real food. For that, I am thankful. 

My grandma, my dad's mother, traditionally makes lasagna for Christmas. The same household that started me on pickled herring. 

When my brothers and I were small our parents were young and didn't have much money. They were separated and we lived with our mother. Somehow we ended up on the Toys for Tots charity list. An ambulance came to the house one Christmas with a Santa Claus, camera man, and a few other people I presumed to be EMTs. Actually I thought they were firefighters at the time. I was immediately suspicious and did not like the invasion of strangers in our home. I told the man dressed up as Santa that I did not believe him to be Santa and he challenged me to pull on his beard to verify. I did grab his beard to check but he was not expecting me to lift my feet off the floor. Turns out, the beard was real but a real beard doesn't make a real Santa Claus. Not paying a visit in tow by flying Reindeer? Kick rocks. Get back in the ambulance and roll out. We got a bunch of toys we didn't ask for but had fun playing with for a day. I remember my mom bouncing on some ball with a platform ringed around it. I don't remember what it was called but there were a few good memories from the experience. 

At our maternal grandparents house, later on, I was horrified to see we were on the news because of the Santa visit. I would have told them to keep the toys had I known they would put us on the news to feel good about themselves. The best part of that Christmas was our mom was happy and playing with us. The toys didn't matter. I don't value Christmas presents much. Christmas is about spending time with my family.