Remember back to past holiday dinners, one comes to mind when we were in the Air Force and stationed in New Jersey.
My husband had several bachelor friends who were regularly invited over for dinner, and they decided to return our generosity by inviting us to a holiday dinner. They had turkey on the menu with some assorted deserts planned.
They set a time for 1 p.m. and we arrived about noon to a disaster in the making. The turkey was thawed and one of them was trying to figure out how to cut the turkey up before frying it like a chicken.
I explained about baking a turkey, we got it into the oven and set mealtime back a few hours.
I asked what they were serving for side dishes, and they pulled out two or three cans of tomato soup and some green beans. They did have some potatoes, so I got those peeled and started.
As to the pies – they had gotten some cans of pumpkin and pie crusts in which they dumped the pumpkin in. It wasn’t pie filling and they had no cookbook! The consistency was rather like pumpkin soup.
They also had a couple of bottles of wine, but no corkscrew. We ended up pushing the cork inside with a coat hanger which made for an interesting sight while serving.
But I had to give them credit for the effort.
We eventually had an interesting meal, lots of laughs and made memories that have lasted a lifetime.
Everyone has some stories that are told and retold over decades, probably picking up some dramatic details along the way, particularly if your family and friends are anything like mine.
Be it a kitchen fire, a German Shepard stealing the turkey off the platter, or any number of other incidents, they all come together to form shared lore that creates bonds and a collective identity.
So, the conclusion is: Enjoy your holiday, friends and family and don’t sweat the small stuff.
It is about the people, which is, more than any perfectly prepared meal, something we should all be thankful for.