My fingers are crossed as I say this...but SO FAR this holidaybaking month I haven't had any major catastrophies!
But I have in the past! As I was making my fudge this week
I was reminded of the time that I dutifully stirred the bubbling
candy for 6 minutes until it reached 234 on the candy thermometer.
The next step was to stir in the pecans, and I grabbed them out of
the freezer and poured them in. ....not even thinking that the frozen
nuts would dramatically lower the temperature of the fudge!
It was like a big BALL of fudge instead of being able to be spread
in a pan to cool. Needless to say, I didn't give any of it away!
~~~~
We also had one year where our live, huge tree full of
gorgeous vintage, one of a kind ornaments crashed to the
floor....not once, but three times! That was even with the
"guaranteeed tip-proof tree stand" that cost a small fortune.
I can laugh now, but I cried real tears over all of those
broken ornaments....much less the water on the carpet
from the stand, the scraped wall paint, etc. etc.
~~~~
So, it's time to "BE REAL" and post a confession....anybody
else have a Christmas catastrophe that they can now laugh
about as it is in the distant past?
~~~~
photo from googleimages.com
I'm laughing....
ReplyDeleteThis year I have restrung our tree twice with lights. Twice! The strands of lights keep burning out. If any more go out they are staying on the tree until after Christmas.
A few years ago, my toasted pecans (that I worked SO HARD to shell myself) became scorched pecans in the blink of an eye. The neighbors received Christmas cards from us that year.
I spend 4 hours last night unwinding 600 lights from the tree :-((
ReplyDeleteAfter an hour of trying to find the bad one, I gave up.
my almost healed broken finger is back on the splint but oh how satisfactory it was to see it all light up again
Can I ever relate to this..I had a lower strand of lights go out on the bottom half of Christmas Lights on greenery hanging from the stairs. Of course this happened on Sat. at tea and stayed off until my son charged through the foyer, bumped into the lights and low and behold, they came back on and I've had no problems since. I checked those blasted things when they first went out but all he did was bump them and on they came.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young and living at home with my folks we had a cat that decided to dive into the middle of my mother's famous Christmas Hawaiian cake which was cooling on the counter. This was a very expensive cake to make so did we throw it out? No way! Mom dipped out the paw print indentions and iced over top of that and we ate it anyway..LOL!! It was just family so we didn't really mind. We still laugh about it every Christmas when Mom brings out that cake.
ME, Me, Me...one Christmas morning I was cleaning up all the wrapping paper up when our huge tree fell right on top of me. I had ornaments in my hair! After that ex-husband screwed the tree stand to the floor right through the carpet. The first year I was divorced I put all the lights on my tree only to discover they wouldn't work. I cried like a baby...and then started over again.
ReplyDeleteWell, the year my two oldest were 2 and 3... I had some sort of bug and was rushing to the restroom a lot. One time I heard sort of a muffled clinkily crash, then my two year old laughing - then breaky-tinkling sounds. It kept happening. As soon as I could, I went out to see what he was up to. he was taking the glass balls off the tree, throwing them (that's what 2 year olds do with balls, right?) and when they broke, he'd stomp back and forth over them with his bare feet, laughing his little head off. He was so innocent, delighted and amazingly unhurt...With his curiosity, I used to say he was the hardest to raise, but so much fun it was worth it!
ReplyDeleteI can't cook. So my mom told me to keep an eye on the yams and add marshmallows on top. I'd not if it was enough if it looked like it did when it was on the table. Okay fine. so I put a bunch on like she said. I looked at it later and it looked like it had before I put the mallows on. i asked my baby brother to peek at it and he and I decided to add more. We did this 2 more times!! Well, all that mallow started overflowing in the oven. Ewww stinky! and smokey. My mother now has us bring the stuff but we aren't allowed to make it...lol
ReplyDeleteMG ~ oh....the worst part is that you shelled those pecans yourself... :(
ReplyDeleteStevie ~ I would have cried, too!
ReplyDeleteRosezilla ~ I am amazed that your little guy's feet weren't cut to ribbons! That's an incredible story! Yes, throwing balls...that's what little boys do!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nice comment, I am meeting the nicest people thanks to Julie. I noticed you have triplets, I have a twin brother and am well aware of the trouble and stress we put our mother through. You are a pretty amazing person to handle triplets, I am sure you have some great stories! Take care and have a fantastic holiday!
ReplyDeleteBobbi, thanks for visiting my blog. I have been looking around yours and I really like it, your boys are very handsome!
ReplyDeleteHere is the recipe for the Challah bread I made http://tammysrecipes.com/challah
The only thing I do diffrent is brush the tops of the loaves with a mixture of warm honey and butter. It did take me a few trys to get the knack of braiding the bread down, but it was well worth the effort!
I hope you like it!
ok, I am a dork! Sorry, I meant to go to another blog.... **blush**
ReplyDeleteYears ago - on Christmas morning just before company arrived - our cat, Thursday, climbed the tree and knocked it over. I've had my share of burnt cookies, chocolate that turns into cake and such.
ReplyDeleteMy dad always put a thumbtack in the wall and tied a string from the top of the tree to the thumbtack. Even with seven children and an assortment of pets the tree never fell.
No catatrophe but last year we couldn't go to where we were goign to do for xmas as it was too icey and snowy. We ended up at home with nothing to eat but pies! :)
ReplyDeleteMuseswing ~ the thumbtack is a good idea!
ReplyDeleteMmm ~ I guess if I were to be stuck with only one food, pie would be a good choice!
Our tree fell over twice one year and I lost some very dear ornaments too. I seriously contemplated putting a hook in the ceiling to anchor it after that experience but thankfully I never had that problem again.
ReplyDeleteI've also had a punch bowl crack in half when we poured warm mulled cider into it, and my turkey pan sprung a leak one year and all the grease poured into the oven and started smoking, setting off every smoke alarm in the house! They are all laughable memories now!
the first year i was married (the first time at age 23) i got a puppy from my husband for christmas. a few days after christmas i was taking the christmas tree down and the puppy stuck his head into the hole in the christmas tree stand. it was completely stuck and would not budge. i had to hold the poor little guy as when he tried to stand on his own he fell over with a big plunk since the stand was way too heavy for him to hold his head up. it was most traumatic with tons of tears but i can laugh about it all these years later. here's to the continuation of your catastrophe-free christmas season!!
ReplyDeletePat ~ oh my, those are some good ones! The turkey pan leak would have really been bad...all those gravy drippings gone!
ReplyDeleteJulie ~ oh...poor puppy! You didn't say, but I'm assuming you finally got the puppy unstuck? And what a sweet gift from the new hubby! I love it!
ReplyDelete