Happy Holiday ,,,,

Trying to do something that you are not real good at is difficult to say the least. As a single mom I wanted my children to have the same experiences their friends were having and so I tried extra hard to find a way to make holidays special. Of course, what I planned didn't end the way I expected.

When the kids were younger my parents left for Florida before Thanksgiving and I wanted to have a nice meal so I started planning what I would buy at the grocery store. But as I added it was starting to be pretty expensive if I wanted to have a nice meal. The next week Foodtown offered a complete Thanksgiving Dinner for 39.95 all you had to do was order and let them do the cooking. So I make the call and the next week I send the boys to town to pick it up. While they are gone I set the table and get our drinks ready and I am feeling pretty proud that we would be sitting down to a nice meal. Well, the boys come in with a box and start taking containers out and then they remove a frozen turkey. Yep, you had to heat and bake to prepare, no short cut just the convenience of it being prepped and ready. So sometime near bedtime we were ready to eat our meal. The kids thought it was halarious and take every opportunity to share that moment with others.

But the worst one was Easter, I found an ad for Easter Dinner at a catering place at the edge of town called Carousel Concepts. Inside they have a big merry go round and they were advertising hand carved turkey and ham and sit down family style meals. So off we go with my parents to this metal pole barn with the carousel and we are seated at a table. What they didn't say was you had to stand in line to get your meat and they would bring you dishes of other food. Of course by the time you got your meat the other items were cold and you were lucky to get meat as the lines were long and slow. So of course, this has been a story dredged up at every holiday.

This year I used Bob Evans and their special feast. Overall the experience was much better but not the same as peeling your own potatoes and making your own vegetables. By the time I picked it up, drugged the box to the kitchen unloaded the items to the fridge, got up the next day removed those same items and warmed them up I could have fixed everything the old fashion way. However, I need to add I did try to do that last year and set the oven on fire on Christmas. The fire alarm was blaring, the house was filled with smoke, fire is shooting out of my oven and everyone is scurring around trying to put the flames out. So much for Christmas cheer.

Every year I visualize having this wonderful meal, the kids all here and a nice conversation and lots of fun, then the bubble bursts, I am hobbling from chair to chair, sweat pouring off my brow, I am still wearing my jeans and tee shirt, my hair is a mess, the TV is blaring, the grandkids are fighting and all the adults are yelling, "do you two want to go to bed?"

Perfection is not me, I want it but it is not within my reach. Through the years I have decided, from all my suggestions and ideas, I have provided my family hours of material for them to share with coworkers and friends. But always at the end of each holiday we all laugh and I am my kids biggest fan and share their laughter about these crazy moments for the last 30 years as priceless moments that not even I could have planned.

I just know one day they are going to tell me they have found me a new place to live that has a housekeeper, cook, someone does your laundry and you can even schedule to get your hair done there without leaving the apartment. I will be grabbing my clothes and packing my things, jump in the car and find myself in front of the HOME.