I seriously considered doing the Whole Foods turkey dinner thing this year. Last year I spent all of Christmas cooking, and it was awful. I was exhausted, stressed, I didn't get to spend time with my kids, and in the end they didn't eat the dinner and threw tantrums at mealtime. Such a failure.
I do love to cook, but I've realizes this year that I DO NOT love to cook while parenting little kids. Cooking has become a stressful time-suck that prevents me from doing the things I TRULY love and need to do (write, spend extra time on my kids, who have extra needs).
I've always cooked a ton of stuff from scratch, but this year I plan to do a lot of very simple and often premade meals, and as little cooking as possible. I just don't have time right now. It's hard, though, because I'm very aware of the pressure for mothers to cook super-healthy, super-creative food from scratch art all times.
Our Christmas dinner this year will be grilled sandwiches with deli turkey, cranberry sauce, Stovetop stuffing, havarti, and spinach inside, with canned gravy to dip into. And potato chips! Easy peasy. Basically leftovers without making the original meal.
Please let us know how the WF dinner is! And I owe you a PM, I know. My brain is dead.