Giving Thanks Even When Things Don’t Go The Way We Planned
Remember the movie A Chistmas Story? In the movie Ralphie wants a bee bee gun and that’s all he can think about (except how much he hates the bunny pajamas his aunt sent him).
Every year around the holidays we watch this movie. Another favorite is Christmas Vacation. This year we had an experience right out of the movie.
Christmas Day I had about 30 people over for dinner. I had cooked all day and everyone was looking forward to turkey and dressing balls (our grandmother’s way of doing stuffing). I watched the little red button on the turkey to make sure it was done. When it had popped up I took it out and called for my husband to slice it. My cousin looked at the bird and said the words no cook wants to hear when her guests are sitting down to the table….”The turkey’s not done.”
She was right. It looked done on the top but on the bottom it didn’t. We put Tom Turkey back in the oven and ate ham. There just wasn’t anything else I could do.
Later that night Bill and I were sitting in the den watching Christmas Vacation with the boys and when they got to this scene….
Bill and I looked at each other and yelled, “The turkey is still in the oven!”
Needless to say we will not be having turkey leftovers. When I put Tom Turkey in the oven he weighed 13 pounds. When we took him out that night he might have weighed six ounces and he would have fit on Barbies kitchen table.
Even though my turkey dinner turned into a ham dinner, I’m still grateful for all the faces around my table. It was a wonderful day.
Life is wonderful, even when it doesn’t turn out the way we planned. Thank goodness God is in control. He makes much better decisions than I do!
You are so right. When you have a house full of boys crazy things happen all the time!
See…it doesn’t just happen in the movies!
I cooked a ham still wrapped in plastic once.
This year the roast was still frozen and we substituted quickly. I cooked the original roast today and it got forgotten and over cooked. DRAT!
The problem with turkeys is that when the white meat is done, the dark meat may not be. Sometimes we cut off the breast and pop the rest of the turkey back in the oven for half an hour. That beats having dried-out white meat, although I don’t think I’ve ever had a turkey as dried out as yours must have been! It’s good that you had a sense of humor about it and carried on!
I actually have a meat thermometer somewhere but didn’t even think about it!
It was funny, just miss the turkey leftovers!
Funny things happen at this house all the time! Blessings to you!
We love both movies too. I am so sorry to be laughing to where my sides hurt, but that is the funniest thing I have heard in awhile. Thank you for sharing that so much. lol 🙂
That’s so funny and sounds like something that could happen at our house!
OH, TOO FUNNY!!! Sometimes when we’re really, really tired, our brains just do not function properly…but at least you have a funny memory.
Two of my favorite Christmas movies!! A tip for next year, don’t go by the red button, get a meat thermometer. 🙂 The meat thermometer hasn’t been wrong yet.
The red buttons are VERY unreliable. Ham is great too… not the turkey you wanted, but you can have turkey dinner another week.