Glad the holidays are over?

[jglass]

Am I the only one? Im so glad they are over.
I cooked..I visited..Im done til next year. There is a reason the holidays only come a few times a year lol.

I talked with my FIL and he is gonna let the other son have Thanksgiving at their place and then Christmas at his house. They normally do it that way but the other son has a new premature baby so my FIL did both holidays. After turkey on Thanksgiving FIL decided to do a crazy pasta, burger, hotdog hodge podge Christmas dinner. I cannot say I cared for it. I prefer a more traditional Christmas dinner. The pasta is great to do with a regular hoiliday dinner but not in place of. Next year a traditional holiday dinner with some Italian elements like baked pastas and a antipasto platter sounds ideal. Maybe the old mans stove will finally kick off by then and he will have to replace the antique.

We will do another dinner for Easter and then nothing else til Nov.

 

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

NO!!! I wish every other month there would be a major holiday, only not requiring us to buy gifts but I am glad Valentine's Day is right around the corner then various Birthdays and such til Nov & Dec roll back around! Love to cook-out for Labor Day & Memorial Day then 4th of July!!! I LOVE HOLIDAYS!!!!!

 

[chubbyalaskagriz]

I too am ALWAYS glad when the holiday season is over- BUT, I don't really like this too-quiet January time of year, either. It's a wee-bit too uneventful and hum-drum now, for my taste.

I love Christmas but by New Year's I'm always through w/ the fussin' and wantin' all to be back to normal.

This year was a bit more my ideal as far as the gift-giving, 'cause everybody was feeling the pain financially due to the economy, so we all scaled-back the buying a lot. I much prefer giving small token gifts- or simple omemade gifts, myself.

My sister has kids, and she and her hubby are both lucky enuf to have decent jobs, and like most families today with any amount of means, their kids are over-indulged and have everything. (Mind you- I don't blame them, necessarily- as EXCESS seems to be the common thing these days...)

I don't myself like to see a Christmas Tree that's half-buried in excess presents- I'd much prefer a lovely tree, beautifully but simply decorated, with a small, tastefully-modest scattering of parcels beneath it.

But, I'm the non-parent in our group, and whenever I voice this view of preference for scaled-back giving, I'm always shoved off to the side and told that since I'm not a parent, I cannot really and truly "understand". (Hmmm... Okay!)

My all-time favorite Christmas Party was an annual event my friends Julie & Scott in Fairbanks always have- sadly I obviously did not attend this year- I sure missed it!

They invite about 20-30 folks to their home and they cook a theme dinner. One year it was moose chili- another year it was Mexican, another year it was lasagne...

The party is a "white elephant" (or "Chinese Auction") tree-ornament-exchange. Everyone brings a wrapped Christmas Tree Ornament. We draw numbers and person #1 selects a wrapped box- unwraps it. Person #2 has the choice of selecting either that ornament previously selected by person #1 (in this case, then person #1 then selects a new wrapped box to unwrap) OR selecting a new box to unwrap. And so on...

Soon, person #23 has the option of selecting a new box to un-wrap, OR he may select any of the previously unwrapped ornaments that the prior 22 people have chosen.

These are always fun because inevitibly there are always some lavishly beautiful ornaments that everyone covets- always a few goofy gag-ornaments, and always a few new trendy ornaments that are that year's "rage"- that everybody wants! There's also at least one "bum" ornament that is the lousiest of them ALL- that NO ONE wants! So the competitive "war" and "rascalling" that occurs is always really a hoot!

Plus the fellowship and food are always perfectly fantastic, too!

(I sure missed Julie & Scott and their wonderful annual party this year...)

 

[jglass]

Kevin I bet your friends missed you at the party to.
Cathy if I didnt have to cook for 13-14 and then pack it all up and haul it to another location I would want more holidays lol. Shlepping all that up and down the stairs here to my car in winter takes alot of the fun out of it for me. I have to reheat it when I get it there and no one in Jons family has the ability to get there on time.

 

[jfain]

I am very glad the holidays are over and I can get back into my normal routine. There is always so much to do at the holidays and I don't get much help. I try to limit what I do but you should have seen the fuss that was raised by people at work when I refused to participate in the 3rd December holiday potluck. By the time it's over I'm exhausted.

 

[jglass]

I couldnt imagine family cooking for the holidays plus cooking for work commitments.

 

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Kevin I bet your friends missed you at the party to.
Cathy if I didnt have to cook for 13-14 and then pack it all up and haul it to another location I would want more holidays lol. Shlepping all that up and down the stairs here to my car in winter takes alot of the fun out of it for me. I have to reheat it when I get it there and no one in Jons family has the ability to get there on time.

Bummer!!!

 

[jglass]

That is why I wanted to do ham for Christmas. It is good at room temp.
Alot of the stuff I made for the Italian dinner got cold and wasnt as good. It would be fine if my FIL would go ahead and eat while its hot but he always wants to give the others 30-45 min to get there past when they were supposed to be there. I kept telling Jon to eat last time and he kept saying he was gonna wait on his Dad. I finally got aggervated and said loud enough for Dad to hear that none of it was gonna be worth a dang because it was already freakin cold! Then his Dad was ready to eat. Fresh baked bread sticks and garlic pull aparts were not nearly as good as they were when they were hot from the oven. Not to mention everything else that got cold.
If I had to cook for them often I strangle Jons brothers family for being so late. They think it is funny they can never get anywhere on time. I think it is inconsiderate. 10 min late is ok...45 min late is crazy.

 

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

They think it is funny they can never get anywhere on time. I think it is inconsiderate. 10 min late is ok...45 min late is crazy.

Oh... but Jaine haven't you ever heard the politically correct thing is to be Fashionably Late I would like to know who the heck started that stinkin' term, I like you believe in promptness for many reasons, but especially when it comes to food being BEST when served Hot Straight from the oven!!! I really dislike cold food, especially french fries!! I hate to say it but they are some kind of in-laws!!!

 

[chubbyalaskagriz]

RE: "you should have seen the fuss that was raised by people at work"

jfain, I can identify! Here's my experience...

In the near year that I have been at my new job, my department has hade a dozen different food days. They're always great, in that everyone participates- and lotsa fun food is brought-in, BUT the one drawback for ME has been this: Since I am a neat-freak and since I have lots of commercial cooking experience, these work events have always ended up being events I feel I am working- rather than events I feel I am a guest at.

I'm the one in our goup of 20-30 who wipes up messes, checks sterno, empties trash, stirs foods and refreshes it, checks stock of paper plates, cups, plastic forks, etc. and I am the only one who seems willing to clean-up the MESS afterwards.

SO... this past year at both Thanksgiving and Christmas, I contributed food- brought in my share of goodies, BUT, since I work nights, I did not return during the day (which are my sleeping hours, mind you) to take part in the actual party.

I heard thru the grapevine that a few were talking smack about me not attending and taking part. One 1st shift co-worker who I share an over-lap hour with each morning as I am departing and he is arriving actually said right to my face: "Your desserts and cheeseball were delicious- but we missed you... it's hell to have to get up and dredsed-up in the middle of the night and report-in to work, but the team approach would have been to suck it up and just do it."

My response? "Don't talk to me about the 'team' approach, dude. It don't get much more 'TEAM' than making food and hauling it in for others- to an event that you know you yourself ain't even gonna be at!"

That kinda quieted his azz down a bit and brought out a smile of agreement from others as well- Ha!

 

[jfain]

I can certainly identify with that to Kevin. There is always a huge mess to clean up at my work too and I always wondered why is it that when you give a group of 20 adults a pan of food neatly cut into sections they mash it like dog food instead of just taking a section and leaving the rest in good shape for everyone else? I can only thing they must be spoon challenged.

Well normally I like the work food events even though most things have wheat and I can't eat them. I even sent my husband in with a dish one day when I was too sick to attend but participation has never been mandatory so I think people shouldn't be so nasty if you decide sometime that your finances or the craziness of your life prevents you from joining in once or twice.

 

[jglass]

They were lucky you brought in food for them to have since you were not going to attend. Bunch of ingrates!

 

[The Ironic Chef]

I usually prefer the term Holiday Hell. I'm glad it's over. I have seen so many fights over parking spots. Watched the news as people crashed through Walmart doors not to far from here killing one and trampling a pregnant woman. Office parties lead to drinking, bickering, gossip and fights, who needs that?