Christmas Dinner - Last Year

Originally posted 12/27/07


For those of you who've seen A Christmas Story, we almost ended up with Chinese duck for dinner. Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra.

I purchased a whopper of a turkey back in November when all the good turkey sales were happening. The plan was to have Christmas dinner at my sister's house. I made sure that I had a note to remind me to take the turkey out of the freezer the week before Christmas. I am notorious for keeping it frozen until Christmas Eve. Then we get to spend the night soaking it in the sink in an attempt to thaw it adequately for baking. Anyway, I digress.

I transferred the turkey from the freezer to the refrigerator a full six five days before said roasting day. I even remembered to bring it to a family gathering (along with Grandma's roaster) on Christmas Eve so my sister could take it home and they could pop it in the oven first thing Christmas morning.

We all gather at my parent's house for brunch and the opening of gifts on Christmas morning, so my sister and her husband didn't really want to leave the turkey cooking unattended. They figured they'd cook it when they got home.

After our families had all gone to their respective homes, I get a call from my sister. The silly old turkey is still FROZEN! They tried thawing it in water, but it just wasn't going to happen in time to cook and dine upon said turkey that same day.

Fine, we'll go to Plan B. Courtesy of three-way calling, my mom, sister, and I all inventory our current food supply while brainstorming dinner ideas on the phone. At last we decide upon chicken and noodles. My homemade rolls will still go well with that. Ditto for the dessert pies. Okay then. We just need to pick up some noodles AND we happen to know that King Soopers is open on Christmas.

Somewhere around 2:56 p.m., it occurs to me that King Soopers will not be open the entire day, so maybe I should call them. Turns out they were closing at 3:00 p.m. While I am only one mile from the store, I doubt I can get myself out the door and in their store in four minutes Hmmm . . . this isn't working out so well. I try the other two grocery chains. Neither is open at all on Christmas. Fine.

Another conference call and more inventorying (yep, it's now a word). This is when random jokes about Chinese restaurants and ducks show up. Except my sister doesn't like Chinese, so that's not such a good option either. We decide upon chicken barley vegetable soup. Mom will make this one. She has all the stuff and no store trips are needed.

The final menu? Chicken barley soup (although it was quite bland when it arrived at my sister's. It took a bit of doctoring, but we ended up with tasty soup. And no, too many cooks did NOT spoil the broth), homemade rolls, sweet potatoes (the kids were SO anxious for these - we didn't dare wait), and mom's delicious homemade pies (apple & pumpkin) for dessert. Dinner was later than anticipated, didn't feel all that Christmas-y, but was still yummy, and we were all together as a family.

Blessed are the flexible for they shall bend and not be broken.