1. Artichokes with dipping sauce: Kids love this appetizer because it's a fun, unique finger food. Take whole artichokes and boil or steam them for about 20 minutes, until outer leaves pull off easily. Dipping sauce: ¼ cup any type of vinegar, 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. To eat: pull off leaves of artichoke, dip in sauce and scrape off flesh at base of leaf with your teeth. Don't eat whole leaf, just soft parts. When you get to center of artichoke, you must scrape out prickly part with a spoon. Then dip heart of artichoke into your sauce and eat whole thing (this is best part).

2. Low Fat Baked Tortilla Chips with three kinds of dip. (Frito Lay has a good low fat tortilla chip with only two ingredients - corn and salt!) Dips: - Salsa - choose a variety that is low in fat with healthy ingredients. - Avocado - 2 or 3 ripe avocados, smush with a fork add about a tablespoon of lemon juice. Avocados are very high in fat, but it's a healthy fat. - Refried beans - choose a variety that is low in fat, mix up with a little non-fat sour cream to give it a more dip-like consistency, you might even put in a packet of taco seasoning for a spicey dip.

1. Steamed Veggies with spices rather than butter or cheese. (Seasoning salt is an excellent spice for any vegetable.) Go for green vegetables like broccoli, green beans, and peas. Raw veggies are better for you, so don't cook them until they are mush, keep them as close to raw as possible. They should look bright green when you're finished cooking them. They are more flavorful this way, too and you're less likely to load them up with butter.

2. Light meat has fewer calories than dark meat. Also trim fat and skin away, you'll save a few calories.

3. Cook stuffing separate from turkey, that way it doesn't soak up fat from meat. Use whole grain bread to make stuffing. Skip sausage stuffing this year and go for a combination of these ingredients instead: mushrooms, water chestnuts, roasted chestnuts, walnuts or any nut, onions and celery, cranberry sauce. (1 can of whole berry cranberry sauce to 15 oz of dry stuffing.)

4. Skip mashed potatoes altogether. Try baked sweet potatoes or squash instead. If you have to have a potato - have a baked potato with low fat topping like nonfat sour cream, non fat cream cheese, or plain yogurt.