Merry Christmas 2010 - It's a cosmic joke

I have been battling the pain and pacing over the last couple of days to get organized for Christmas Lunch with Scott.  Just do a bit at a time has been my motto.  On Thursday I made the cranberry sauce.  Yesterday I made the trifle minus the jelly topping to be done at the last minute.  Why trifle?...... because that's what Scott wanted when I offered him a choice.  Last night I parboiled the fennel and grape tomatoes ready for roasting today.  I also made scalloped cabbage which I baked with its bacon sauce this morning but I got really tired last night and as soon as I could I went to bed leaving the dishes behind.  The effort was considerable and in fact I wrote a song to be sung to the tune "I wish you a merry christmas" which goes like this:

I wish you a Merry Christmas
With a Migraine over one eye
and a body that tries to tell me
"Won't you go back to bed?"

I wish you a Merry Christmas
With an ear-ache on one side
and a doctor that tries to tell me
"It is all in your head!".

Good tidings I bring
To those muscles aching,
I wish you a Merry Christmas
Hoping next year you're not dead.

Here's the dud video with barely any sound



I woke up early with the pressure of the Roast Dinner not allowing me to go back to sleep. Brian from next door presented me with a bottle of Chardonay for Christmas and I assured him I would not be alone on this special day.  I peeled and parboiled the potatoes and baked the scalloped cabbage and once again headed back to bed for a rest. I could not really sleep but I lay there for an hour thinking how quiet it was and how tired I was, but I decided to stick on the TENS machine to see if it would get rid of some of the shoulder pain.  So when my number one son arrived at the door at a quarter to nine, I was naked and draping a dress in front of me to answer the door with wires hanging down and a machine in my hand.  He was not amused.

He had a bag of soft drink and chips and a present or two.  I went back to the bedroom to robe and he went into his old bedroom asking for wrapping paper for Connor's present.  When I was back in the kitchen surrounded by cooking pots and pans and par-baked goodies and while I was removing the Turkey Hindquarter from it's bag my boy announced how disgusting it all was and said "I cannot eat here, just give me my presents and I am going back home, better luck next year".

Well he is gone with his pillow and parcel from Auntie Debbie and he left a present for me but I am not in the mood to open it.  I shed a few tears but they are pretty dried up these days.  I put the oil and rosemary on the Turkey and shoved it in the oven and here I sit waiting to snap out of it and get back into it.  I'm still having my Christmas Dinner but this year I will be alone after all....which is what I wanted in the first place minus the mess.  Had it have been planned that way, Christmas alone, I would have probably bought a frozen McCains Turkey Dinner and had the energy to go and visit Jan and crew.  Right now, I just feel depleted.

Here is my disgusting mess that s could not deal with.