I have survived it. My husband reports that not only did I survive it, but apparently everyone walked away well fed.
His boss came to dinner.
Now, in all fairness, Hubs has known his boss for years. When Hubs and I were first married, Hubs was doing an internship with the National Park. After his internship, the National Park picked him up seasonally. For our first few years of marriage, he bounced every six months between park districts. (Literally just down the road from each other.) Dan, Hubs' boss, was one of his co-workers back in the NPS days. Having Dan over for dinner was going to be a casual type of affair, but I still had tons of work ahead of me.
Hubs decided to make good on his promise to finish painting our hallway. We had started it a over a year ago and all painting halted. It was too cold, Hubs doesn't like the smell of paint . . . You know when something goes unfinished for so long that you don't even see it anymore? Well, we had hit that point. I told him that if he wanted his boss to come for dinner, the hallway needed to be dealt with.
Add Christmas into that equation, as well. Oh, and a birthday for a 5 year old. And a mama who worked far too much and was up far too late working on Christmas things. That spells into a giant neon sign-- OUR HOUSE WAS A WRECK! I reclaimed it, though. It was all with the help of sugar and caffeine. That conversation I had with God last night helped, too.
I decided to work from the back of the house to the front. I made my turkey tenderloin in the crock pot with potatoes and carrots. I had frozen rolls out rising. Hubs requested homemade cornbread stuffing (sorry BooMama), so I had that to make later on. His boss is a single guy. I refused to serve him the rotisserie chicken that Hubs suggested. Dan doesn't get home cooked meals and I was going to make him one if it killed me! Our room needed reclaimed from the piles of clean laundry that needed put away, the sweaters that needed hung and the furniture and pictures that needed to go back out to the hallway. K-'s room was cleaned this AM, but tidied about 4 more times as the day went on. As I moved through the house, I got hot and realized that on December 27 at 3 PM it was 62 degrees F outside. I turned the heat off and opened the windows and doors and turned the ceiling fans on. I like to get fresh air piped into the house when I can, so this gave me a great wintertime opportunity. (I didn't end up closing the windows until after 8!) I busted a move and got through the whole house. K- stayed downstairs in her play area for most of the day playing with her Polly Pockets, Legos and Play Doh. She did go out to the front step to play with her chalk.
At 5:30 PM, they arrived. I was just finishing wiping some surfaces in the kitchen. K- went to entertain as I continued cooking.
In the end, Hubs told me that it was the best meal that I ever made. He also told me that he has no idea how I got everything done that I did. He was convinced that I had to have a closet somewhere that was overflowing with crap. I admit having made one dump bag, but that I'll go back to tomorrow. Most of that is Christmas stuff that I had no time to put away.
Dan ended up staying until 10 PM. But I did it. I survived the test of the boss coming for dinner. I survived it, but I'm exhausted. Pardon me, as my pillow is calling me.
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