Just a can of Cranberry Sauce

Hubby has officially given me permission to turn it all into a book. Here's an excerpt from It's Just a can of Cranberry Sauce (the title he strongly suggests):

Preparing for our Thanksgiving Feast, I reached for a can of cranberry sauce. With a quick turn, turn, turn, I opened the can with a can opener. Next step, turn it over and tap, tap, tap to the bottom of the can. Realizing I forgot to do my trick (gently run a knife around the cranberry sauce to loosen it enough...making it slide out), I put the can down to get a knife.

SWOOP! In swooped hubby and MIL. To save me of course. Everyone knows that even I couldn't quite possibly know how to open it all by myself. Right? (No, I am not sarcastic at all!)

So...I backed up quietly and watched their little escapade:

Hubby: You have to open both ends. Open the other end with the can opener too.
MIL: (Agrees.)
Hubby: (Tries.)
Cherub 1: Can I help?
MIL: (Uses this as a teachable moment.) Sure, you want to open the other end. Then you'll be able to slide it out.

Hubby & MIL soon discover that the can is rounded on the bottom so the can opener won't work on that second end. (Discussion ensues about how the ends are so different.)

Hubby: Where's the bottle opener? We can poke a hole in it.
MIL: (Agrees.)
Me: (I am thinking, WHA?)

No one can find it.
After watching them struggle (approx 5 minutes worth), I quietly and politely ask MIL if they are ready to give me the can back. MIL nods.

Me: (Grabbed knife, gently go around cranberry sauce. Gently taps the bottom of the can and cranberry sauce slides out gingerly onto the plate.)

MIL: (Laughs.) I guess she knew what she was doing all along.

Later when we were laughing about it, hubby asked me when I was going to accept that they both were the same ...always "having to step in, control the situation and be right" (his exact words~ not mine!). I told him it took me 12 years, but I finally have learned to just step back and let them have at it. It is just easier that way.

After all, it's just a can of cranberry sauce.

(And yes, I still love you both, even if you are always right!)