The Year Barry Saved Christmas...

Thanks for the treats Carrie. How did you know we love candy so much?

Let me let you in on a little tid-bit. The excitement at my house the last 24 hours.

We had friends over last night. We were having my favorite thing, appetizers. And I have to say I was PRETTY DARN excited (as I so often am when it comes to food). I was in the process of making my second batch of Nuts 'n Bolts, (because the first batch disappeared so darn fast). I realized that I was out of Worcestershire sauce, as the butter was melting in the oven. So I turned the oven off, thinking, "I'll finish that off tomorrow". About a half hour later, I turned the oven back on to preheat (back to appie-ville) and after it was preheating at 375° for about 1/2 an hour, I kind of thought 'weird'. But when I went to put my beloved snack in... the oven was stone cold. That's right. The light was on, but it wasn't working. The two guys, Barry and Murray worked at it like crazy, removed panels (that I had NO idea even existed). Found fuses and buttons... Nothing they monkeyed with helped. Murray finally shook his head sadly and said, "I think you need a new oven." (Oh - and a quick side note, phyllo pastry on the BBQ is a bit touchy) I can't say that I'd recommend it, but if you have no other options, it did work, and the charred pieces we could pull off.

Now take a moment to put yourself in my shoes... I'm hosting Christmas dinner here in 2 days. That's right. An oven is a somewhat crucial element when it comes to COOKING things. Things like CHRISTMAS dinner!

So after a sleepless night of fretting and worry, Barry went out to buy fuses. Nope. The fuses apparently were fine. A waste of money to buy new ones.

Can you imagine needing to go and buy a new oven the day before Christmas? I mean let's talk delivery here... I was pretty sure we were up the creek if you will.

I suggested that perhaps we could get a new element, and try that out. What did we have to lose? So Bar bucketed off to buy a new element, and then, as I stood in a line up of 23 at Superstore, I got the call.... "IT WORKED! The oven is heating up!" Ahhhhhhh, I could calm down and life will return to normal.

Now, having said that life returns to normal, what I mean by that is, dinner on Christmas day will be fine. But the baking I had planned to do for Gigi (the kids great-grandmother) NOT looking very promising... So though I was prepared for the season, there are a number of things that I did indeed wait to do at the last minute. And these things, are the baking for Gigi. I will be hard pressed to get it done tomorrow, in my 4 hour window, but I'll indeed having something to present her with Christmas Day.

So now, 2009 has officialy become known as the year Barry saved Christmas! [He puffed up so nice when I told him he saved Christmas].Thanks honey! Glad you're so handy!