The Leftovers that Saved Christmas

My daughter said she felt queasy Christmas eve. Being the mom (and cook) I immediately poll the rest of the family to make sure it wasn't my cooking. Christmas morning, we awoke to the sounds of my daughter throwing up. And she had a fever. We all went downstairs to open presents and she laid on the couch and said she was too sick to open gifts.

We typically go to my husband's family for the noon meal Christmas day. But decided not to go. We didn't want to risk getting others sick.

So my husband and I are sitting in our chairs. The fire is going. My son is off playing with his new X-Box and my daughter is asleep on my lap. It just didn't feel like Christmas.

Later that afternoon, the doorbell rang. It was my husband's brother. He had leftovers from the family meal. So as I began unwrapping the ham, turkey, green beans with the little bits of ham, sweet potato cassarole with the praline topping and my sister-in-law's pretzel salad...my daughter walked into the kitchen and said it smelled good and that she thought she could eat. Finally...it finally felt like the holiday.