Alis girls Posted November 20, 2017 Share Posted November 20, 2017 I dont mean anything dreadful just the little things that make family Christmas memorable. One year my mum cooked the plastic bag of giblets inside the turkey. Not sure why as she was a stickler for making gravy properly. Suspect she had a blond moment. Another year OH who was my boyfriend at the time and I decided to cook a turkey. Despite following Delia to the letter this small bird was only just cooked after 6 + hours. I was on the phone constantly to mum to ask advice. Luckily no one got food poisoning. A few years ago at tea time I opened a bottle of lemonade which exploded all over the floor. My dad sat there in a pool of the stuff munching away oblivious to the mayhem at his feet. The air was blue and my family OH and 2 sons watched in silence as mum went into meltdown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted November 20, 2017 Share Posted November 20, 2017 When MIL was alive I always went to the inlaws - even before we were married. She always bought the biggest turkey in the shop.....generally over 32lbs in spite of the fact there were only ever max 6 to Christmas lunch. One year she outdid herself and OH and I went downstairs early on Christmas morning to investigate strange noises and vocals from the kitchen only to find her trying to shoehorn a pteradactyl sized turkey into the oven. In the end she had to cut the legs off and lunch was dinner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 We put the turkey in the oven one year when the children were still quite young and then got caught up with unpacking things and building things. After a while we realized that there were no real roasting smells and we went to investigate and found that the oven element had gone! We quickly remembered that our neighbours were going to their daughter for lunch and decided to be cheeky and ask if we could use their oven. We rushed out of the door to see their tail lights disappearing around the corner! Fortunately we had a double oven but the top one was only small and not fan assisted but somehow by grit and determination we crammed the slightly flattened and luke warm turkey into it and Christmas was saved . In fact it was one of the best because it could have all gone so wrong so we appreciated it more and now always keep a spare oven element...which reminds me OH asked me the other day where it was and I haven’t the foggiest There was also the year when the candles in the Home made table decorations set the tinsel around them on fire when I was upstairs changing a baby and OH in the kitchen washing up and our ED who was 5 at the time and known to exaggerate started shouting FIRE FIRE and we nearly ignored her Oh and last year when we all got flu and the spare fridge in the garage broke down fortunately we noticed before everything went off! Think that’s it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 I got up early, put the turkey in and spent ages carefully wrapping cocktail sausages in bacon before prepping the vegetables. We had a lovely Christmas dinner, and it was only after everyone had gone that i opened the top oven and found a full tray of charred pigs in blankets that we'd completely forgotten. Oh, and there was the year my mum dropped the Christmas pudding on her foot. It was still in the china basin and she spent the rest of Christmas limping. We were very unsympathetic as I recall! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandmashazzie Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 One year my bil,wife and kids came from England. We always have a lot of stuff for our kids,stockings etc which they generally didn’t. They went out shopping and bought more so Santa would look even handed and kept it in black bags in the ensuite. On Christmas Eve OH did dump run to free up the bin and you’ve guessed it, bil brought all the rubbish from their room! Both brothers could be seen climbing over railings to dump at 9 on Christmas Eve with torches, sadly no luck. Another year I put M and S sachet of gravy in microwave. It tasted strangely sweet,it was actually salted caramel sauce! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Not a disaster but I was worried it would be, many years ago I was friends with the elderly lady down the road and realised her only daughter would be working Christmas Day so invited her and her husband. OH and boys didn't know her really and none of us knew her OH well. Before Christmas my youngest said 'Remind me again why are we having the old people Christmas Day?' Snowy that year so she rang in a panic Christmas morning to say they couldn't make it as they were afraid to walk on the snow and ice so OH drove the few metres to get them and he and boys made sure paths to and from both doors ta car completely clear. They were absolutely delightful guests all of us, small boys included enjoyed ourselves immensely, sadly she died week before Christmas last year and I miss her but happy memories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Major disaster this morning Some years ago (probably at least 6) my mum made little advent drawers for my two boys. She glued together matchboxes ( ) and put little handles on each one (those split pin things) and covered with lovely festive paper. Must have taken AGES These two sets of boxes live in the cupboard in the study, not in the loft with the other decs as I need them late November to fill with choccies. Have spent this morning hunting for them and can't find them I KNOW that's where I left them lat year and can't think they'd have been moved (more than OH life's worth to disrupt my systems ) These are part of Christmas and special as dear old mum probably won't be with us much longer and I am in such a panic and feel really devastated. Stupid, I know, but these were a special part of Christmas and simply cannot be replaced I don't even want to ask OH in case he has accidentally thrown them out after all. The boy's will be so upset; they were only asking last weekend what I was going to fill Nanna's drawers with (so to speak!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Really hope that you find them I think they may have been a very old Blue Peter project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Yes, bless her, the could well have been a Blue Peter thing! Am still racking what few brains are left to think where they could be. Mind you, I have found loads of other things thought lost whilst looking so I guess there's a bright side to everything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandmashazzie Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Maybe they ended up in loft. Fingers crossed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 I hope they turn up safe and sound. Maybe you put them in a much safer place if they were looking a little fragile? I can't recall a Christmas disaster here, I think I was always determined not to cook like my mum. I can't tell you how many dry turkeys we'd eaten over the years. She insisted on making Yorkshire puddings in individual fairy cake cooking tins. The darned things were mini Frisbees - really exercised your jaws. Then that year when I said (we were married then) across the table that you could toss the darned thing over to the other wall and it would bounce back - or perhaps save it to skim across the water. She was so annoyed she stated she "WILL NEVER MAKE THESE AGAIN!" I don't think she reckoned we'd cheer, but we did - and she hasn't! Then again at mum's she encouraged DS to slurp cream from a jug. He did and then he tipped it out over his head! Luckily a bib caught most of it, but an awful lot landed all over his clothes, the table, the floor - just as well it was Christmas at her house! Bad nanny, naughty nanny! DD is cooking dinner this year. That will be interesting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alis girls Posted November 22, 2017 Author Share Posted November 22, 2017 My mum always cooked a very dark Christmas pud. OH then the boyfriend was waxing lyrical about how useful it would be for mending roofs. She was standing behind him rest of the family were smirking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 A multi purpose Christmas pud! How useful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluekarin Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 Not a disaster but my ED doesn't let me forget the Christmas I stabbed her! In my defence she was annoying......JOKING! I had a new knife set and the carving knife was about a metre long so I didn't quite realise how close to her I was and poked her a little bit with the end I hope Grannys Drawers turn up Soapdragon. Have they been put inside another box? Under something, or behind something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 I hope "Ooops, word censored!"ody said "ta ever so" when they received their portion of pud! And Bluey! Oops. Something my nan used to do with knives - she'd talk and wave the carving knife/bread knife around at the same time - many near misses! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursula123 Posted November 23, 2017 Share Posted November 23, 2017 My MIL stuck the carving fork in my backside twice waving it around whilst talking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted November 23, 2017 Share Posted November 23, 2017 I am beginning to think I have led a very sheltered life, no dramas to report! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted November 23, 2017 Share Posted November 23, 2017 Sounds like our receptionist at work, she is lethal with the letter opener in a morning. She gesticulates wildly with it when she’s talking. It has become a running joke between us since she nearly had my eye out in her first week Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted December 1, 2017 Share Posted December 1, 2017 Still no advent drawers ......in spite of OH's fumbling in the loft I suspect they are up there somewhere (I don't do lofts as I hate spiders, confined spaces and ladders ) I have resorted to putting the required number of chocolate coins, snowballs etc into a bowl and doling one out each day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 Oh no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
