IT'S A WRAP

Our daughter,Terri, did a wonderful job with the Christmas eve party and her planning was superb.  She does, of course, get frustrated with the gratuitous advice that her mother seems compelled to offer.   (I am just practicing the way my sister, Thelma used to treat me when she came to our house for Christmas). Our Christmas eve dinner has traditionally been prime rib and one year  Thelma kept turning up the heat on the roast.  We ended up with well done Prime rib which my nephew,  John Eric  would have been happy with but my immediate family prefers their prime rib on the pink side.  Also  that was before my nephew came onto the California scene so only Thelma and I enjoyed the well cooked roast that year.

In the years since, the antics of Aunt Thelma meddling with the oven has been a story shared on numerous occasions.  Particularly when we try to serve John medium rare beef and he has to take it back to the microwave.  In recent years I have attempted  to do two smaller primes and make one more well done but alas, Ken  worries that it is going to get ruined and tends to practice an Aunt Thelma in reverse and pull it out too soon.   This has all become Terri’s problem and I will just tell the stories from now on. 

It was a really wonderful Christmas holiday, busy but I was able to enjoy as Terri carried the responsibility for everything.  I had promised to do the twice baked potatoes and I got that done – after I almost set the house on fire with a fire in the oven.  Had to call the Fire Dept and that was embarrassing.  Ken’s nephew who is a fireman was here and had the fire out by the time the firemen arrived but alas, I was humbled.   Terri and Mark (the nephew) came in from their walk just as the fire was getting started and Mark threw soda onto the fire which put it out.   Many years ago I (or Ken) bought a big bag of soda for cleaning.  I remember thinking I would never use that in a 100 years.  Well, that was just what we needed for the oven fire and yesterday, we bought another 10 pound bag to replace the one used Christmas eve. We learned that was what you need for an oven fire and we were fortunate to have it available.

Fortunately this happened before noon on Christmas eve day so we were able to proceed with cleanup and preparation.  Don and Linda (Ken’s brother and sister in law)  cleaned up the mess and we hardly lost a potato as a result of the fire.  Ken says that there was apparently a piece of plastic on the bottom of one of the trays that I put into the oven with the potatoes and it melted, ran down into the fire underneath and caused our problem.  I was embarrassed because I was afraid that the fire might have been started as a result of poor house keeping (an unclean oven)  but the firemen who came said that was not the problem so I was relieved.  However, Javier (Belen's helper and significant other) always cleans my oven before a holiday and until I knew for sure, I was afraid he might have forgotten.  Thankfully, Javier did not forget.  There you have it – our surprise Christmas eve adventure that provided the foundation for a great holiday adventure and story.

After the above misadventure, Terri was relieved to have me take the back seat to which I had been assigned and she carried on very graciously and competently. In the spirit of my increasing old age, should this be my last Christmas on this planet it was a great finale and if there be more, they shall be icing on the cake without the oven candles!

Thank you all for your warm good wishes and may the Christmas holiday always be a reminder of the good in giving and the gift that Christmas celebrates.

Love and a very Happy New Year to all.