Countdown to Christmas 2025…Day 23
I am writing this one on Monday night because I have to be out the door super early.
Thank you for all the love and support today.
We are hoping for a good night’s sleep and rest for eyes that have shed quite a few tears.
I feel like we need a light hearted memory today so I hope this one makes you chuckle. It is one of those that was not funny at the time, but sure makes for a laugh looking back.
One Christmas, an energetic mom friend asked a few other moms if we wanted to be part of a meal exchange the crunch week before Christmas. We all had multiple children ranging from toddlers to grade school aged.
This mom would have had a well-followed Instagram and Pinterest account, based on her level of creativity. But we were not of that era and so she called each one of us on our house phones and lined up four moms to participate.
The basic scheme was we each prepared a meal for our own family and the three others just one night. Her theory was that we would only have to cook once that week and then have our meal delivered the other three nights leaving Friday open for leftovers or pIzza.
It all sounded great on paper.
The actual execution revealed a few flaws.
First was the fact that I had to prepare enough food to feed FOUR families on my night. We had a small kitchen. Making this volume of food and coming up with enough containers to get it all delivered proved extremely stressful. Not to mention the time factor of loading up three sets of meals and getting them around the neighborhood while Russ tried to get our three rounded up to eat at our house.
Second, I discovered that having someone drop off a meal that their family loved did not always translate to something our family loved. Or liked. Or would even consider putting on a plate. So I ended up having to come up with extra dishes to make sure everyone had enough dinner.
The last night was a bit easier since it was Minestrone soup. Thankfully everyone seemed okay with this as we were soup eaters. There was bread and salad and I breathed a sigh of relief that this one was a winner.
Unfortunately, that evening I happened to succumb to one of the many flu bugs going around and as a result, Minestrone soup was dead to me for many, many years. I couldn’t stand the smell of sight of it until just recently actually.
The mom who came up with the idea did not suggest a repeat the following year. I guess we all learned that sometimes it’s just easier to keep meals in house…even the hectic week before Christmas.