Christmas Glitches

We just avoided a near catastrophe. 

Sam and I started Phase One of our Christmas baking on Sunday. In this case, Phase One consisted of making a quadruple batch of M&M cookies. Everything was going relatively smoothly until we placed the 5th or 6th pan of cookies into the oven. When the timer went off, it was clear there was a big problem. The cookies on the pan weren’t baked. They looked more like they had melted. I’ve seen this happen before. 

The last time something like this happened was probably about 8 or 9 years ago. The problem was that the baking element at the bottom of the oven had burned out. 

In most cases, this shouldn't be a huge deal, but like most things in my house, everything is so old that replacement parts are hard to get. Back then, I ordered the part at the local appliance store and for whatever reason, the part took about three weeks to come in - and when it finally showed up, it was the wrong part. I had to reorder it. (In hindsight, I think it took so long because whoever was supposed to order it the first time, never did.) If this was going to be the case again, it would be a big problem. We were only a week away from Christmas Eve.

Sam was worried and I was too, but I tried to play it cool. "It was no big deal," I said. "It'll all work out." - all of which was true and I meant it. I just had to figure out how and what to do. 

Sam's immediate concern was whether or not we were going to be able to make cookies on Christmas Eve. It turns out that it wasn’t the actual cookie making that he was concerned about. His more immediate concern was whether or not he was going to be able to leave the traditional cookies for Santa. But since we already had baked 5 or so pans of M&M cookies, he figured that maybe Santa likes M&M cookies and, if worst came to worst, he could leave a few of those for him. I told him that I was pretty sure that Santa loved M&M cookies. 

While the cookies were Sam’s immediate concern, my immediate concern was the twenty pound turkey that was currently thawing out in my refrigerator. What happens when I'm not going to be able to cook this thing for Christmas? It wasn’t simply the very real question of how I dispose of a now gone-bad twenty pound turkey - after all, the ground is too frozen to bury the thing - but what was I going to cook for Christmas Dinner instead? 

Sure, I have plenty of food crammed into my freezer, but this mostly consists of an assortment of hot dogs and various types of breakfast sausage - along with a wide variety of other frozen items which have long since surrendered all identifiable features to their thick coating of frost and various degrees of freezer burn. I suppose if I had to, I could make some kind of festive arrangement with a few of these "food" items - that is, if I put aside the question of whether or not it should actually be edible.

But even still, none of this addressed the party mix! What am I going to do about making the party mix? 

I went online and searched around and found what I hoped to be the right replacement part. I ordered the part and paid for the next day shipping, which meant that, since this was Sunday, it should be to me by the end of the day on Tuesday. I also put a call into the local the local repairman. Theoretically, this should be a simple enough job that even I could to handle it, but with time running out, I didn’t want to take any chances. So, I made the call. Now all I could do was wait. Play it cool… and wait.

The repairman called me back on Monday morning and I told him what had happened and that I had ordered the part - which was due in the following day. On Tuesday he called me again. I checked my email and sure enough, FedEx had just dropped it off at my house. I left work early and drove home to meet the repairman - but first I wanted to check out the burner - just in case it was a replay of the last time. 

I'm happy to report that it was indeed the correct part. And I'm even happier to report that, as it turns out, the burner wasn't the problem. The problem was that the wire connecting the burner was broken. 

The repairman was able to repair the wire and we were able to continue using the old bottom burner. Now, I have a spare burner for when the old one inevitably burns out. Plus, I feel like, for once I got my money’s worth by having to pay for a repair on something that actually needed repairing.

So, last night, after dinner, Sam and I were back in business. We took the bowl of remaining cookie dough off of the freezing cold back porch, and we finished baking the remainder of the cookies. Both of us were feeling very relieved, if not elated. Now, Santa will be able to have his traditional sugar cookies on Christmas Eve - and I don’t have to think of creative arrangements constructed out of hot dogs and other mystery foods. 

Plus, the party mix. Now I can make the party mix. As someone once said, "Christmas is saved!"