Do you have a holiday party disaster story?!
Answers: It's not really a disaster, but it's a funny story. The occasion was Thanksgiving, about 22 years ago. My husband and I were rushing around all day trying to make everything perfect for the dinner we would be serving about 15 guests. Everything seemed to be progressing well although I was so stressed that I was making a difficult day for my hubby. Finally the time was here, all were seated including my baby boy who was in his highchair, screaming and kicking up a storm to get out. The soup tureen was on the table and I was about to begin ladling it out as my husband turned his attention to our unhappy toddler. All of a sudden there was a splash in the soup, no-one new what it was. I fished around with the ladle only to find a child's sock in the soup. My son was now content, his bare foot in the air for all to see. I wanted to cry and my husband just began laughing and laughing along with our guests. Since that time, whenever our day is really rough we call it a sock-in-the-soup day and the memory makes it a little easier to bare.
The very first Thanksgiving dinner I ever made was all made from scratch. I'd invited not only my family but my husbands. There were 23 in all and as we'd only been married 8 months and I was young I was SO nervous and had no idea how hard it was! There was so much food to make on top of cleaning the house just so, and all that "just married" stuff. ;-) Anyway, I had roasted a large turkey and ham and had set them on the counter to rest before cutting them and went to serve our guests appetizers before dinner. Once everyone was seated I went to get the turkey to bring it out...the centerpiece of our Thanksgiving dinner. I walked into the kitchen and our cat was standing on top of the turkey! All four claw dug in! She'd eaten a hole right out of the breast. I freaked out, called my Mom in the kitchen as calmly as I could. "What do I do?!" I wasn't gonna have enough meat without it. Mom said, "Just cut around it and they'll never know!"
We can laugh about it now that it's forever ago but it was a disaster when I was 19 and a young bride doing her first holiday. I remember finally sitting down to eat thinking, "How'd my Mom do this with 3 little kids??"