Christmas Dinner fiasco

First, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post this.


That being said:


My mother-in-law really called it this year. She said this Christmas would be the one we'd always remember. She was right. It was the Christmas my oven quit and we had to cook Christmas dinner without it!


Imagine my surprise: Mom-in-law is standing in the kitchen, innocently by the stovetop, cooking eggs for Dad-in-law. There is a sudden BANG coming from the direction of the oven. "What was that?" "I don't know. Are you okay?" "Yes, I'm okay. Was that the oven?" Just as we're preparing to put the turkey into the oven, we notice that it's not pre-heating. No heat at all. None. Zerio. Zip. Slightly warm from Christmas breakfast, but that's all.


Here is how God blessed us, in spite of ourselves:

1. Our wonderful neighbors were deep-frying their turkey (something we normally do, but opted out of this year, for some reason). They volunteered to deep fry ours for us, and it was heavenly. Thank you, God, for good neighbors.

2. Most everything we had on the menu could be cooked on the stovetop. The only thing that didn't turn out well that way: The green bean casserole. Ick!


3. I had forgotten to put the rolls out to rise, which ended up being a good thing, since I didn't have any way to cook them. Look, I didn't waste any rolls! Yay!


4. Mom had already been assigned the pecan pie (since hers is the best in the entire universe... trust me on this one, if you haven't had it). We even had a wonderful dessert in the end!


Turns out, the oven broke because I did something I never do. I put food back in the oven to store it to get it off the kitchen counter. I don't like doing that, simply because I'm afraid I'll forget that I put it in there and end up with something moldy or burnt or something gross. However, I figured that since I was going to be using the oven a lot that day, I would remember and take it out before it became a problem. I put the sausage & egg casserole back in the oven, along with the knife we had used to cut it. The knife had aparently decided to attempt an escape mission, and launched itself out of the dish and onto the heating element at the bottom of the oven. The heating element split when the knife hit it, creating a very clean break. (The loud BANG we heard ...) The break was so clean, it was almost invisible upon inspection, until Lewis started messing with it and realized it was split. It was a bit like a paper cut you get, that you can't really see until you start moving the skin and the cut magically appears.

Anyway, a new element almost 15 days later, and I have my oven back now. (The holidays really made it difficult to replace in a timely manner). However, now I have one more thing to be thankful to God for: toaster ovens. :)