The Holidays
Because - what ELSE would I write about at this time of year?
I guess I’ll start with my early experience of the traditional holidays as I knew them.
There was time off from school – when I was a kid, we got Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving week off, and that was it. These days, the kids score an entire week.
Still, I was happy enough with the two days. Better than nothing.
Then there was all the wonderful food that I didn’t have to do a thing to prepare. That too was pretty sweet.
And after the extensive cleanup that the adults did, then it was officially Christmastime, and mall crawling. Which I didn’t have to get up early for, or drive to, or find a parking space at.
The ultimate of this season was of course, Christmas, the awesome expensive gifts that were given TO me, and the WEEKS off from school, and hanging with friends.
The holidays now are a 180 from that early experience.
I now start getting a bit of a knot in my gut as Thanksgiving approaches. I am now the older family member in the hot seat that makes it happen for friends and family. I feel like I am playacting at being an adult in this role.
I am not the most organized person; that starts things off wrong then and there.
I am also not the best cook. I avoid cooking because I loathe the cleanup afterwards. So I am rusty at it. This is pretty lame, I know.
Our older son has a good deal of experience with cooking, and has tackled the turkey, what he calls “The most unforgiving protein” because of how easily it tends to dryness, for the last two years. That has been very helpful. I have been left with the simple dishes, which I can handle, and am proud to say, seem to get eaten. Yay!
Now, last year our older son used duck lard to make the turkey moist. I was wary, but he knew his stuff and the bird was the best I’d ever tasted. However, the cleanup of the duck lard took two full days. It somehow saturated the entire house with the odor of old grease, it slicked down every countertop, and made it possible to skate across our tile floor. So this year we had to ask him to not lard it up. He still came up with a good bird.
This year I made a conscious effort, as I continue to lengthen in the tooth, to lighten up and ignore what the holidays are supposed to be, according to commercials and ads, and just accept it for what it is – a great deal of work and cleanup along with the celebrating. And not to stress out when things don’t go perfectly. We always seem to run late with the food, and it all hits the table warm at best. So what, business as usual.
I have also, after many of these holidays under my belt, come to realize they become the past so dang quickly, that I better just make the most of ‘em and enjoy the friends and family I’m with while they’re here. Took me longer than most to figure that out, I think, but I’m grateful I finally did.
