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.

Now that it looks like Belgium is not happening , I'm thinking the WF dinner is the way to go for us, too! So thank you for the idea.

Ariadne -- Sounds like last Christmas did not go as planned! Oh well, we live and learn. The cooking kind of ruined last Christmas for me, too, even though I had help from my father-in-law with making the dressing and tying up the turkey and all that. It was my first time being 'in charge' of Christmas dinner and I was amazed at how much work it was. I found that I was distracted all Christmas day, and it was a surprising amount of work getting all the side dishes ready at the same time. Luckily it turned out and no one had a tantrum (lol), but the process was no fun and actually put a damper on the whole day.

Janet, oh no! Why are you not going to Belgium anymore?

You know, there are so many women from previous generations who still feel totally obliged to make the whole dinner as their matriarchal duty, but are actually not that good at it, nor do they enjoy it! Our generation does have more pressure to be gourmet, no doubt about it, but we also have a lot more options for our convenience and enjoyment. Congratulations for availing yourself!

I have also come to truly appreciate the restaurants that open on holidays like this! We tip really well. I guess we can't all be joyful gourmet chefs.

I love cooking, but HIGH FIVE, ARIADNE! Cannot cook even eggs without stress with a toddler underfoot. Nowadays he refuses to be worn or carried... So I just want Santa to bring me Xmas dinner. i love Ariadne's idea, and may steal it, since Whole Foods is not near me.

Totally agree eating is a great contribution. I hate cooking and then having no one to appreciate it. My partner and I have quite different tastes and sometimes... Things don't go swimmingly and it can cause regrets and hurt precisely because both of us are so invested in cooking.

Plus, there's the toddler. Two-hourly snacks are so exhausting, with all the little rules they come up with for themselves.

Aziraphale, I too had this vision of my son growing up standing on his chair and watching me blissfully chop and stir and bake... Here's the thing. He would rather dive into the stockpot and pour the batter on to the floor and pull all my shredded greens down into his pan and cook them with no fire and a big puddle of water! So he IS enjoying his childhood and eating his meals... Just not like in the vision. Hey-ho! Is okay, and we will all be fine. Let go... And set the table for that delicious no-cook dinner.