How about "Christmas disasters"... anyone had any?
I admit to getting rather stressed on Christmas morning... even with all the preparation in the world, in someone else's kitchen without one's own equipment and oven, it can all get a bit much...
And one Christmas morning, from the kitchen, I overheard my Dad's girlfriend exclaim: "it's only a roast!!". <she was lucky her turkey wasn't laced with arsenic that year!>
Anyway, the next year it was her turn... very calm was she, indeed... her table was gorgeous... drinks and nibbles were ready... her hostess trolley was loaded when we arrived (a good hour or more before eating), the veg dishes had cling film on (it's now a family joke), and at 2pm, my Dad brought her turkey in, we all admired and photographed... and OH started carving and... it wasn't cooked through!
My then 95 year old grandmother promptly opened a bar of chocolate, at the table, and started eating it. <another family joke we trot out regularly!>
and you guys? all calm in the kitchen say, an hour away from dishing up, and everything's on the go, yet something isn't quite ready and the oven needs to be turned up, bla bla... and someone says "can we open presents now?", and others are filling their faces with peanuts, grrrrrr, and someone's opened a window in the HOT kitchen and the gas has gone out under the Christmas pudding...!
thank god! x
