Off and running

Getting rolling on another holiday feast for tomorrow. Our menu features a gorgeous 9+ pound prime rib, oven-roasted potatoes, some kind of vegetable, crusty bread for jus sopping, the crew's favorite holiday salad, pumpkin, cherry and apple pies...

This is a simple process, really. Get as much done before hand as possible. No problem. Especially since this isn't nearly as complex as the holiday dinners we have had in the past. Coordinating turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy, side dishes, rolls, pies and more in this little dinky kitchen of mine is getting to be more of a pain as I get older. I have decided that, next holiday season, I am passing the baton to DIL, DS1 and DD.

They are all excellent cooks, DS1 and DD do mains, entrees, sides... DIL does the baking. Since the son and his wife have a monstrous huge Victorian mansion with a monstrous huge kitchen, an actual dining room and places for everyone to sit? Perfect. Give the Old Lady a glass of dry red vin and she'll put her feet up and enjoy not coordinating every last detail.

My ability to keep going and going and going like that battery bunny was steamrolled in October of 2007. After exposure to black corn (aspergillum, to which I am fatally allergic) I became extremely ill and came way too close to that last curtain. After bed rest and weeks of steroids, I managed to do one last huge Thanksgiving day feast. After over 30 years of planning, shopping, cooking, cooking and cooking some more? I found I couldn't do it without collapsing from exhaustion the day after. I miss that stamina but it may be my body is finally rebelling after all these years.

So. I am learning to listen when my back aches, I get short of breath, dizzy... Asking others for help is not in my nature but I must learn to do just that. I don't fuss about the house being spotless, the windows clean, all laundry done. I may not even scrub the bathroom today.

And there is nothing wrong with that at all.