Christmas disasters

I can’t think of any real disasters though having my mother and her sister-in-law at the same table during their last decade was always a trial, mother glowering and auntie desperately ignoring her. It was Mother’s fault and we couldn’t leave either of them home alone on Christmas Day.
The nearest we came to a ruined meal was the year sometime in the 90s that our area had a three hour power cut from mid morning on Christmas Day. Lunch became supper but as I remember it we had a fun day as always. Fortunately it was just our family and the family next door so lots of children and no cross old ladies to contend with.

I had one of the worst colds ever. I had guests coming, so had to cook the Christmas dinner. I staggered from bed to the kitchen, threw the turkey in the tin, opened the oven door, and the oven packed up. No way of cooking the turkey. I stood there and howled, drank 3 glasses of sherry, and felt a bit better. I had no cooking facilities until the New Year, as I couldn't get anyone out to repair it. I am always a nervous wreck on Christmas morning in case it happens again. It couldn't, could it?

When I was growing up, we had neighbours with a disabled son. Every Christmas, my parents would visit them for a "little drink" which inevitably was more than they could handle. Christmas dinner was usually missing some ingredient. One year it was all the vegetables which still lay on the chopping board.
The year I had my son in late November we decided we would have Christmas dinner as a new family of three. I opened up the turkey on Christmas morning and the smell hit me! It was rancid. Fortunately we stayed walking distance from my parents so we had a decent dinner after all.

This brings back memories lol

Early on in our marriage when I was still a novice in the turkey dept , I cooked a huge turkey for a family gathering. I got the tin out of the oven and had the 'inspired' idea of shoving a rolling pin inside to lift it out of the pan and drain off any juices.

The initial insertion went swimmingly, I tilted the turkey and then turned to slide the turkey off onto a platter. I obviously turned too fast because the slippery little sucker flew off my rolling pin and - to the the Dam Busters tune in my head -bounced down the length of the kitchen like a bouncing bomb!! It hit one dog on the way , careered off the other and hit the radiator as if we were under nuclear attack!!

Both dogs were too stunned by the assault to tear after it so fortunately I got it before them.

There was nothing for it , with guests imminent but to rinse it off under the tap and hope for the best !!

Took weeks to clear up every scrap of turkey fat that had decorated the kitchen and I have to say every time someone said - the turkeys lovely and moist I grinned !!

One year my DH (at that time) invited all of his family and omitted to tell me until Christmas Eve! I was expecting our first at the time and could have done with going out for the day! Luckily I had lots of frozen vegetables in the freezer and the turkey was huge. My mam and his mam joined forces, rolled up their sleeves and did most of it for me. THEN the gravy was placed in a Pyrex dish and put on the sink side. Hot met cold and it exploded!!!!!!!!!!! Hell!!! It was the last straw and it is a wonder that I didnt go into labour. Luckily all the food was covered and we all gathered together and cleaned up the mess. More gravy was made. No one was hurt! THEN my MIL dropped the christmas pudding and my mam stood on it! One of our neighbours came to the rescue with a couple of christmas puddings that she had and the custard was made. We laughed about it for ages after infact I had hysterics at one point!

A couple of years ago I had stocked up early on a lot of Christmas food. Some was frozen and some was in the fridge. I went out for the day with DD and her family and when I got home I found the fridge door hadn't closed properly and the temperature was about 20 degrees. I was faced with a whole lot of stuff that had to be eaten now, and then of course, replaced.

Every Christmas presented different disasters , ranging from the timer didn’t work and the oven didn’t come on , to dropping the bloody thing on taking it out of said (red hot ) oven .
The first year that nothing happened everyone reminisced on all the previous years and we laughed so much that I had sore ribs
The worst year was when one of my Daughters had flu , but bravely?? Soldiered on and we were all I’ll after the seasonal jollity, except for Oh who ate at a race of knots and left early to visit his sister !