Even though fire safety should be a year-round topic in your home, it becomes even more important during the holidays. You will likely be cooking a lot of meals at home, including a turkey on Thanksgiving. Whether you use the traditional oven or fry your turkey, a lot can go wrong if you are not careful.

Aside from cooking, Thanksgiving week/weekend is a popular time for people to decorate their homes for Christmas. This includes buying a Christmas tree, hanging lights on the exterior of homes, and possibly overloading outlets and circuits.

As you can see, fire safety at home during the holiday season doesn’t just involve cooking. There are plenty of ways you can be fire safe and we will discuss them in today’s post.

How to Be Fire Safe: Cooking During the Holidays

Cooking is the leading cause of home fire and injuries caused by home fires every year. The numbers from 2021 are staggering:

• Roughly 170,000 home cooking fires
• 135 deaths from home cooking fires
• 3,000 injuries
• $494 million in property loss

Now, for some life and property saving fire safety tips when cooking during the holidays:

• Never leave a pan unattended with the burner lit
• Put a lid on pots with boiling water
• Turn all pot and pan handles toward the back of the stove to avoid burns and knocking them over
• Keep a baking sheet within reach should you need to use it to cover a fire
• Move all flammable items away from the stove
• Do not wear overly loose or long clothing when cooking
• Do not plug any appliances into extension cords

Turkey Safety for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has become a popular time for people to experiment with new ways to cook their turkeys. For this reason alone, fire departments across the country respond to thousands of home cooking fires on Thanksgiving Day. Follow these tips to avoid a fire when cooking your turkey either in an over or in a fryer:

• Use the fryer outdoors and not on a porch or under an overhang
• Make sure the fryer is at least 10 feet from any structure
• Place the fryer on flat ground
• Do not let your children or pets near the fryer
• Lower and raise the turkey into the fryer slowly to prevent oil spills and fire
• Only use a turkey that has thawed completely and is dry
• Keep a fire extinguisher (multipurpose, dry powder) near the fryer in the event that oil catches fire

Fire Safe Holiday Decorating Tips

Cooking is not the only fire danger present during the holiday season. Decorating can also lead to home fires no matter the age of your property. Whether you decorate your home to the nines or only erect a single tree; you should still practice fire safety by following these tips:

• Check light strands each year and throw away those that are worn, torn, pinched or frayed
• If you have a real Christmas tree, make sure it is watered often – at least daily (a dry tree is more likely to catch fire)
• Use flameless candles operated by batteries
• Do not leave your tree plugged in and turned on when not at home
• If you do use real candles, leave them one foot away from anything flammable
• Read all of the manufacturer’s guidelines for your decorations and do not string together more than the recommended number of light strands
• Remove your Christmas tree not long after Christmas or when you notice it has dried out
• Set up your tree three feet from heat sources (fireplace, vents, space heaters, radiators or candles)
• Do not block any exits with the tree

Please watch the following video to see how quickly a dry Christmas tree can burn if not watered properly:

Do you have tips for a fire safe holiday season? Have you experienced an unfortunate fire during a holiday? Your story might help save someone from that same stress. Please share it in the comments section.

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The post How to Be Fire Safe for the Holidays appeared first on The Jimmy V Archives.

I have always had trouble with food. Not that it is an excuse because every culture has their food-related hobbies, but I am Italian. Our entire culture is centered around food. When families get together for even the smallest event, there is a large spread present.

There’s a running joke in Italian families that you cannot turn down a meal, especially when it is offered by your Nonna or grandmother. It’s almost an insult to say no to a meal or “light” snack when offered one from an Italian. Self control is a necessary skill to have when dealing with diabetes.

My Diabetic Journey: My Struggles With Food

My struggles with food go back to when I was a teenager. Even though I was quite thin as a child (I had to wear slim pants in school), I still ate more than my fair share of food at meals and for snacks once I hit high school. This eventually led to developing poor eating habits that followed me into college and adulthood.

What makes matters worse is that I continued to eat and gain weight knowing that diabetes runs in my family. It truly is challenging when everything that tastes good is bad for you.

I have been battling those same eating habits since being diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic. There have been times where I have conquered those habits for a couple of months in a row, shedding pounds and staying strong. Then, there are times where I fall back into a realm of constant snacking and eating too much at dinner.

The Problem With Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday to truly look at everything you are thankful for in life. It is also spent sitting around a table with quite a bit of food. Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, pies, cookies and cakes. It is hard to stick to a diet when the holidays arrive.

What makes matters worse is that I have never liked Turkey, the main dish for Thanksgiving. Turkey is not my thing. Not the lunchmeat version. Not the fresh turkey breast you can get at a restaurant. And certainly not the turkey you have on Thanksgiving.

Because of my disdain for turkey, my mom would make chicken parm on Thanksgiving. So, despite avoiding turkey, I would still find myself eating a lot of food. Multiple helpings of chicken. Plenty of rolls. Dessert too, if there were options other than pie.

The Gap Between Thanksgiving and Christmas

There is a nice little gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas where I tell myself I will eat better so I can indulge more once Christmas arrives. That never seems to come to fruition for me. Between the Christmas party at the firehouse, the staff Christmas party at St. Charles, and constantly being on the go; eating right takes a back seat.

The gap is not long enough to get back on track with my diet before Christmas arrives. I know this sounds like a lot of excuses. It does to me too. But, maybe if I put them in writing it will force me to make better decisions this year. Hopefully I will eat fewer rolls. Or, I might eat less seafood on Christmas Eve (Feast of the Seven Fishes).

Either way, seeing my mistakes on paper hits harder. I know what I look like in the mirror. It makes me angry. My anger then turns to stress. Then, my stress turns into binge eating. It is a coping mechanism. It is also a vicious cycle that I seem to be unable to break.

My Diabetic Journey: New Year’s Day Brings New Resolutions

Hope springs eternal on New Year’s Day. There is the promise of a better year ahead if you struggled in the previous year. Many people love setting goals for the new year for themselves, resolutions to improve their lives.

But, what does New Year’s Day bring? A celebration with family around the table. A traditional meal for New Year’s Day is ham. Ham is often paired with mashed potatoes, rolls, and other carbs. While ham is a good option for diabetics due to it being a source of lean protein, the side dishes that are served with it defeat the purpose.

Are you worried about the holiday season and your diet? Have you struggled with bad food habits during the holidays? A little willpower goes a long way towards improving those bad habits. Let’s talk about it in the comments section.

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Jimmy V Archives. You will only receive an email when I publish new content. Thanks for reading about my diabetic journey!

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