Happy New Year to all of you!

I’m sure by now all of you are ready to stop cooking! I know I am and I have not cooked nearly as much as I have in years past. Our holidays really major on the foods. It’s something we all look forward to. All of my girls are fantastic cooks and they like to try new things. Maybe that’s because as growing up our family did not experiment a lot with foods. My husband came from a meat and potatoes family and that was mostly all he ate. So that’s what we served until the girls experimented some. If It wasn’t meat and potatoes, their daddy did not partake.

His mother made delicious noodles which everyone loved and looked forward to whenever we were together.

So you can imagine when she passed there needed to be someone to fill the loss of her delicious noodles. (She also made a marvelous Coconut Meringue pie. Not only was it delicious it was beautiful.) I must confess, I’ve tried to make delicious noodles. But at best, they are OK and hit the spot for most people who don’t think a holiday is a holiday without them.

However, they are a lot of work, especially if your guests don’t appreciate the trouble you go to to make them. I’m a messy cook and they make a real mess in my kitchen.

So I am going to be real transparent with you here. At times, I really don’t want to make them, but my grandchildren do like them. They don’t know their great-grandma and have nothing to compare my noodles with. But last year, I learned a real valuable lesson in the “Noodle Chapter” of my life.

At Thanksgiving we were all sitting around the table and the family had just finished the dinner and someone began talking about how wonderful the noodles were that my mother-in-law made when she was with us. They probably spent 15 minutes (or at least it felt like it to me) talking about how wonderful her noodles were. Hers were thin and uniform in length and thickness. As was brought to everyone’s attention, mine were wide and fat.

It might not have bothered me so much, but I remember my first attempt at making noodles after we got married and my new husband commented that mine were NOT like his mother made. Hers didn’t have the lumps in them like mine did he told me. So as any insecure new wife would say, “Well, maybe you should just get your mother to make your noodles for you the rest of your life.” (Ashamed to say it, but it’s true about what I said.)

Back to our Thanksgiving dinner–I was so glad to have the conversation change to another subject, yet all the words did hurt my feelings as I had labored long and hard to make the noodles.

As we were leaving something was said about the dinner and I made a comment about “Maybe, they ought to have someone else make the noodles at Christmas.” I don’t know who, but someone heard me say it and I am sure there was an “all points bulletin” go out to the family about the comment.

So as our Christmas dinner approached I was determined to make my noodles thin and very uniform. Was it truly a labor of love? No, I was determined to perfect my noodles. (no competitive spirit here.)

So the dinner came and everyone kept telling me how good the noodles were. Everyone, except the little one who didn’t get the memo.

I had gone to visit at the “children’s table” and the older grands were telling me how good the noodles were. Except my youngest grandchild. In all innocence he said, “I think they kind of taste like cardboard.”

Oh my!!! You should have seen the faces of the older grandchildren. Their eyes got huge and they all inhaled a huge breath not knowing what to say.

If it hadn’t been my youngest grandchild, I would probably have given him the “death sentence” for the remark he had just made. But being a grandchild I was able to see it as adorable.

I learned something about myself during that time. I am a very competitive person who does not like to be outdone. It was good for me not to take myself too seriously and laugh about the comment from him. He was just being honest about my noodles and the way they tasted to him.

So as 2021 is ushered in, I want to enjoy the moments that I feel like a “winner” and learn from the moments I feel like a “loser.” I also want to learn from both of those experiences in my life.

And as I enjoy the rest of 2020, I’m going to feel blessed that I can have daughters who are phenomenal cooks and know that it’s OK for me to just be an OK cook. I’m going to enjoy the accomplishments of those who excel and the accomplishments of those who are learning to excel.

I am a work in progress! Please, be patient with me.

Besides, I’d rather be shoe shopping.

Blessings!

Debbie