Friday Five: Lists, lists, lists...

Deb over at RevGals offers this Friday Five: The season of lists is upon us! At least, that’s the way I cope with the many events, worship services, visits and potlucks that squeeze in during this holiday season. So let’s talk about how you cope (or don’t) with celebrating minus the stress.

1. Keeping your ducks in a row: Tell us how you manage the craziness. Lists? That faithful old-fashioned pocket calendar? Smart phone reminders? Wall calendar? Sometimes I make lists. Sometimes I write reminders on my iPhone. Often I keep it all in my head and work to calm my adrenalin driven heart until I get through the in-my-head-list.

2. Must-Do Events: What is one event on your list that you look forward to every year and NEVER miss? Not church services — something else that makes the season bright. Bonus points for a picture from a previous year’s event. Every year is a different year, I don't really have an annual "must-do" events. I do have a number of traditions we do every year - cut down a fresh Christmas Tree on Thanksgiving morning, spend the Friday after Thanksgiving doing ANYTHING but shopping (often we go to a movie), decorate the house and the Christmas tree on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and sometime in the weeks between now and Christmas - bake cookies.

3. Kitchen disasters of the funny kind: Lighten the mood with one of your best kitchen disasters. What ingredient did you forget to add, or what dish was left to turn to charcoal in the oven? It may not have been funny at the time, but now it always makes you chuckle! One year I tried to make my mother-in-laws oxtail dinner, something my kids LOVED when the were little. I bought enough oxtails to feed five of us, baked them as she had, but when we tried to eat them we found that these oxtails (versus what ever she used to serve) had NO meat on them. So here we had this hard to make elaborate meal that had virtually no food in it. We threw them away and ordered pizza. 

4. “Honey, I can’t find the __________!” Every year we turn the kitchen upside down looking for the turkey baster and the cotton  twine for roasting the bird. Do you have a similar kitchen gadget or decorating frustration? Or have you solved a perennial problem and can give us a tried-and-true tip? I can't think of anything that I look for on a regular, seasonal basis. I roast my turkey in an oven bag so I don't need a turkey baster or string....and most everything else I cook with I tend to use often enough. Although I will say that sometimes my husband puts dishes away, not where I put them, and then I have to search to find what "logical" place he determined for the item I am looking for. Even then, however, there are only a few options for searching....

5. “I’ll never forget…” Tell us about a sweet holiday memory that you want to always ALWAYS remember! The Christmas when my daughter, then my son, had chicken pox. That year my car died so I was stuck at home, with sick kids, until literally Christmas Eve, when I ran out, kids in tow, and purchased every single Christmas present in one day - and my kids (4 and 7 months) never caught on that I was buying their gifts....I don't remember how I pulled that one off, but Christmas morning was filled with delight and surprise. 

BONUS: For those of us leading Christmas Eve services, what is on your “MUST HAVE” list for the evening? An easy, simple meal between the two services, a meal that will not drain me of energy but sustain until 1am.