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Christmas catastrophes.

(69 Posts)
M0nica Fri 22-Dec-23 16:08:04

You know those last minute glitches.

This morning I defrosted a slice of bread in my microwave. It was working perfectly. At lunch time I put a preprepared moussaka into it to defrost and heat through - and it was defunct, making all the noises, turntable was revolving, but no microwave. The food stayed frozen.

Now with 7 people here for the next week, I need a new one now. I really cannot wait until the sales.

Then this afternoon I realised that I hadn't bought any goose fat for the roasties. I usually buy it from the turkey farm with the turkey, but that farm closed last Spring and our new supplier, just hands out the turkey we ordered at the farm gate, and no extras. Thankfully that was quickly remedied by a call in at a local farm shop.

In previous years we have had the dishwasher breakdown on Christmas eve, again when we had a full house, and one famous year we defrosted the frozen turkey and found that it was 'off' slimy and green in places.That was at 3.00 on Christmas Eve.

We raced back to the farm shop with the turkey. They had one uncollected turkey and we sat there until the shop closed at 3.30, and they put the shutters up on the dot and gave us the turkey - which we then had to defrost. It was aa bit like one of those home-births beloved of tv period book adapters and involved lots of boiling water, hot towels and working late into the night.

Anyway, the microwave. We immediately ordered a replacement from what was in stock at the local Argos. DH went to collect it but found 2 mile queues on every approach road to our local little town. However Argos is open until 8.00pm, so we will aim to be there just before 8.00, working on the basis that by 7.00pm, traffic should be flowing out rather than into our local town. and we will get an easy ride there, even if the return jpurney is longer

Theexwife Fri 22-Dec-23 16:15:35

I don’t know which would be worse, the dishwasher or the microwave, I wouldn’t want to be without either.

Marydoll Fri 22-Dec-23 16:19:19

Theexwife

I don’t know which would be worse, the dishwasher or the microwave, I wouldn’t want to be without either.

You can do without the dishwasher, wash them by hand, (or find someone to do them wink ), but no microwave is not good!

Grandmabatty Fri 22-Dec-23 16:24:29

The year ds was born, we decided to do Christmas dinner as a wee family of three. I duly unwrapped the turkey on Christmas morning and the stench hit me 🤢. Fortunately mum and dad, who stayed five minutes away, had plenty. We ate with them

Nell8 Fri 22-Dec-23 16:40:11

One Boxing Day I went to slice the boxed ham I'd bought to have with cold turkey only to discover it was an uncooked gammon joint. Seems trivial now but I did feel daft at the time!

Nannytopsy Fri 22-Dec-23 16:40:34

We were at Sis I L when the dishwasher broke down. They didn’t have a plug for the sink. That made the washing up difficult!

RosiesMaw Fri 22-Dec-23 16:47:52

The year I could smell gas in the kitchen on Christmas Eve -a LEAK!
Someone incredibly came out at about 11 o clock to fix it so we had heating and hot water again-and best of all, a cooker!
He banged on the door really loudly and later the girls were convinced they had heard Santa arriving.

Sueki44 Fri 22-Dec-23 16:53:15

Not at Christmas , but I would be lost without my microwave !

Marydoll Fri 22-Dec-23 16:54:21

As young newly marrieds, we were having Christmas dinner at my parents. Before dinner, the plan was to visit the inlaws (who lived round the corner) for breakfast.
We woke up to deep snow and the car engine frozen solid.
We had hardly anything to eat in the house, because we were planning to stay at my parents. Al least we had each other!

Littleannie Fri 22-Dec-23 17:04:22

One Christmas morning I had a stinking cold. I had 8 people coming for lunch. I staggered into the kitchen feeling like death warmed up, put the oven on to heat up, then prepared the turkey. I opened the oven door, there was a loud bang and the oven packed up. I stood there and howled (then opened a bottle of sherry and had a large tumbler). I couldn't get anyone out to mend the oven until the New Year.

Gwyllt Fri 22-Dec-23 17:15:50

Early nineties we had a four day power cut over Christmas. Temperatures were below freezing.

Aldom Fri 22-Dec-23 17:20:40

Littleannie what did you do with the turkey etc etc etc????? grin

Littleannie Fri 22-Dec-23 17:51:17

Aldom
Luckily a lady across the road was going to her daughter's for lunch. She kindly let me put the turkey in her oven. Everything else was done in the microwave, except I couldn't do roast potatoes, so we had new ones.

Bella23 Fri 22-Dec-23 18:08:13

Lots of mishaps.
No water on Christmas Eve.
DD accidentally turned the Goose up and didn't turn it down.
Took DD's to where DH worked he got called to theatre I took the DD's home and he followed 4 hours later.
Lost rum butter was found in a dish that looked like a pie a week late.
Tried to book Goose and was told there was a shortage, luckily a Waitrose person took pity and put me on their closed list.
The worst a DD in Intensive care from Christmas Eve until New Year.
A rotten Goose that stank the house out and they did not have a substitute. We had family coming, a knock at about 10 pm on Christmas Eve the chap from the shop had managed to get one.
Second worst of the lot the year DH was late from work, DD opened a stinky perfumed doll from MIL I was so hungry I was promptly sick and went to bed. Mil phoned and when asked to talk to mummy was told she was in bed with a bucket her doll had made me vomit.
I'm not going to say no broken appliances knowing our luck.
smile

Aldom Fri 22-Dec-23 19:19:40

Thank you Littleannie.
We had a turkey that was 'off' in the 1970's. Our friends over the road gave us some of their turkey and I cooked everything else as usual. The same family invited us over for a Boxing Day meal. The Boxing Day meal became a tradition. smile

Littleannie Fri 22-Dec-23 20:23:36

Aldom- that was so kind of your friends. Happy Christmas and hopefully no more disasters!

Urmstongran Fri 22-Dec-23 20:41:27

Mil phoned and when asked to talk to mummy was told she was in bed with a bucket her doll had made me vomit
Oh that really made me laugh Bella23!

Deedaa Fri 22-Dec-23 21:52:48

We had a green slimy turkey in the 70s. When I took it back to the butcher he said he'd never seen anything like it. It was a bank holiday Monday and nothing was open so we ended up having sausages.

A fairly disastrous Christmas was when I went down with Cystitis late on Christmas Eve. After no sleep because I was in and out of the loo all night I had the turkey in the oven by 6am. Fortunately I was able to see a GP that morning and got some antibiotics, but I spent most of the day asleep.

lixy Fri 22-Dec-23 22:14:55

One year everyone in the house except me had flu - proper flu not just a heavy cold. So we stayed at home and had a light chicken broth for Christmas lunch - I had bread with mine as I wasn't poorly.
It was the quietist Christmas ever!

Our worst decision was to try to please both widowed mothers by having lunch with one and then travelling nearly 200 miles to have tea with the other on Christmas Day. DD was 1 year old, absolutely nothing open even for a loo stop on the way and so many roundabouts... We were very glad to get there and decided Christmas at home after that!

SueDonim Fri 22-Dec-23 22:16:33

The entire ground floor of our house was flooded two weeks ago. Somehow, I’ve managed to pulled Christmas together.

The opposite of a catastrophe, in fact absolutely spot on, a friend’s son and dil came to stay for Christmas. The dil unexpectedly went into labour at breakfast-time, was whisked off to hospital, gave birth, and was back with them, complete with new family member, in time for a late Christmas dinner! ❤️

Callistemon21 Fri 22-Dec-23 22:24:04

If Christmas went smoothly any year, I'd be astonished 😲

Hope you managed to buy your microwave, M0nica and I hope everyone's Christmas goes well.

Esmay Fri 22-Dec-23 22:29:43

A couple of days ago I used my tried and tested method ( adding a lot of salt to water ) of boiling eggs in the microwave .

BANG !

I was in a hurry and one egg didn't get salted .
So now , I don't have a microwave over the holiday .
And my ancient cooker rings gave up the ghost last night .

At this rate , I'll be cooking on the ancient rusty old barbecue in the garden !

biglouis Fri 22-Dec-23 22:45:33

One christmas my central heating develped a leak and I had water dripping in several placed from the kitchen cieling. It was a big job - involved taking out the bath to get at the affected pipes - and the plumber could not come until after new year. I had no choice but to turn the water off and go and stay with a relative.

M0nica Fri 22-Dec-23 22:56:33

SueDonim How awful. The Christmas catatrophe from hell. I hope the water was not too deep, nor in the house too long.

M0nica Fri 22-Dec-23 22:58:27

Christmas has been rescued. We now have a new microwave and I promptly used it to start off the baked potatoes for ssupper, finishe din the air fryer.