I'll start with today's merry fourth part is a house of my family sleeping and watching Love Actually. Along with Holiday Inn (which for some reason I have not seen show up on TV the last few years), Love Actually is a favorite holiday movie so it is perfect that I am capping off the happiest of days with it on.
But, oh, building up to this moment, I was not so sure of a precious fourth part.
New appliances were delivered and installed Wednesday evening. I mean, it's a great gift to receive a new refrigerator and a new microwave and a new dishwasher and a new oven. The instructions for use were put down somewhere in this house .... remember, it is a few days before Christmas so there's lots of wrapping and gift hiding and food prepping and 'oh my gosh where is the tape' hunting.
So with 12 hours of calling under our belts, three runs of ice made and dumped, a few cycles of dish washing and a 15-minutes at 350 degrees test on the oven, we were good to go. Please note, I had ham, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, self-rising biscuits (made with self-rising flour that had no more rising left in its self so we had browned hockey pucks instead) and corn pie to be made in a new oven. It beeps a lot and tells me it is pre-heated, but the same dial also is supposed to show the cook time (or is it a kitchen timer I set -- where are those instructions?!?).
To think, my 11:04 p.m. bedtime on Christmas Eve was so precious and treasured that I said out loud (that's a curse, right?), 'I mean, could this be going any smoother?' Church, dinner, reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, putting out reindeer food and Santa's cookies, opening a gift with PJs and wrapping Sanat gifts (balanced out just right thanks to G's last-minute run to get two more gifts for Camille) all happened easy peesy lemon squeezy.
Famous. Last. Words.
Christmas morning ... 7:13 a.m. start. Lovely, sweet, fun, special and full of all the right gifts for everyone. Who knew Tahitian Treat continued to be a fan fav? The girls played and played all morning. I took a breather with a couple of cups of coffee and then started cooking. Chopping, organizing and assembling (truthfully, most of the assembling was down the night before). Tables set with my beautiful Christmas china, Lenox Holiday. Morning gifts put away.
Then, I looked up and it as 3 p.m. No make up on, no hair done, and still in leggings. Two hours until dinner. Yikes!
No worries though. I had a schedule. Pop that ham in for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees and then put other dishes in and out of the new stove as indicated by the check list.
Moving. Along. Nicely.
I even paused to take a picture of the dinner table with my pretty china. I really love my china. Strangely enough, I only have seven dinner plates not 12. Maybe there is a day after Christmas sale in my future?
Back to Christmas dinner being lovingly prepared in my new oven. Uh, why does the display not indicate cook time?
To make a long story short, biscuits did not rise, burned the dickens out of my hand (new blasted pot holders that came with the new pot set we received for buying the new appliances) and had a ham come out cooler than warm.
Carved that bad boy up, threw pieces on a plate and popped it in the new microwave ... which clearly displays cook time!
Slapped some ice and then aloe on the burn.
Lovingly called everyone to dinner. G prayed. We ate. I drank wine. Everyone else had water.
More gifts, more smiles. More Christmas.
Gifts put away, leftovers and to-go plates sent along and PJs put on. Kitchen cleaned and my lovely Lenox Holiday put away for another year. Everyone in bed and I have the TV,
Love actually is all around.
No comments:
Post a Comment