Let it go

We were thinking about today's earlier blog post in light of the upcoming holiday weekend. We have a relative who has never hosted a family event because she is afraid of everything that could (possibly) go wrong. Her young adult daughter is the one who finally confided "with our luck, something would go horribly wrong."

So… in the spirit of encouraging this young woman, we shared our holiday disasters. Because nobody's life is perfect, and it's not healthy to expect that.

The year the element in our oven burned out about two hours after the turkey went in. Fortunately, we lived in a small town, and the appliance dealer was happy to open the store and sell us a new element right away. Dinner was a little late.

The year we woke up to frozen pipes on Christmas morning. Fortunately, our holiday menu wasn't dependent on a lot of water, and we had plenty of snow to melt on the stove so we could wash the dishes. Guests were encouraged to "go" before and after their visit (and they still talk about the "pee-free" holiday).

The year the sweet potato souffles caught fire. That was kind of exciting, since it was easy to put the fire out, not serve the sweet potatoes, and open the windows to let the smoke out.

We all have holiday "disasters," and while they can seem daunting and embarrassing and absolutely awful in the moment, it's sure easy to laugh about them later. It's even better if we can laugh about them at the time. After all – it's just a family dinner. There are probably no heads of state, no paparazzi, and if there's one less side dish, there's still plenty of food. As long as everyone is safe, it's all good. So let it go and have a good laugh – enjoy the whole holiday experience.