The Day After Christmas
No More Cooking on Christmas
A Future Christmas Tradition
It’s the day after Christmas, about 7:30 am. Thank you, Lord, for this new day. The sun is shining. I’m alive and healthy. I’m grateful.
I just finished my quiet time in the living room with the Christmas tree lit and a couple of scented candles. I’ve been reading the book of Luke and picked up where I left off. I jotted down a few goals for the upcoming year. Now, I’m getting ready to write an article I’m working on, but thoughts about Christmas day come up.
I do my best to protect my sanity around Christmas time, no longer getting caught up in gift-giving for everyone who breathes and all the running around. By late afternoon, yesterday, I felt myself getting a little tense even though it was a great day.
Gifts had been opened much earlier, and we already ate. The leftovers were on the table needing to be put away in plastic food bins, making it easier to fit into the fridge. Dishes were piled high in the sink, and a huge ham was sitting on the counter that we’d hardly put a dent in. Ugh…too many leftovers.
I didn’t plan to have a lot of food for Christmas, but we still ended up with more than enough food for the four of us — me, my husband, son, and mother-in-law.
Ham, chicken (my son, doesn’t like ham, even though he loves bacon, so we had roasted chicken too), mac n cheese (I didn’t plan on having that but the husband wanted it and even made it), mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce (the husband wanted it) and dinner rolls. Oh, and a couple of desserts. It was a near replica of our Thanksgiving meal.
Well, after yesterday, with tons of leftover ham, pots and dishes to clean, I decided I’m no longer cooking on Christmas. Next year, we’ll have pizza and dessert. I don’t even have to check with the husband and son because I know they’ll love the idea since they’re pizza fanatics. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but settled for the more traditional Christmas meal, but not anymore.
I don’t know if Domino’s is open on Christmas, but if not, we’ll order pizza the day before and heat it up on Christmas day. Sounds wonderful. No pots and pans, no cooking, and not a ton of leftovers! And we’ll use paper plates. That way, after dinner it’s all about relaxing and watching movies or whatever.
So, our new Christmas tradition will be pizza for the meal. Just the thought of doing something different is exciting…and of course the thought of no big cleanup.
