Christmas · The host · Warm · about a minute
Christmas Dinner Toast From the Host (Warm, About 1 Minute)
A daughter hosting Christmas dinner for the first time, after her mom gave it up, wanted to thank her mom without making the table cry into the stuffing.
Given by Enid, hosting Christmas for the first time. 131 words. The names are made up.
The toast
For thirty-one Christmases, Mom has stood where I'm standing and given this toast. This year she handed me the job, the turkey, and an index card.
The card is her stuffing recipe. It's in her handwriting, there's a butter stain on it shaped like a rabbit, and most of it is very exact. Two cups of celery. One onion. Then, at the very bottom, it just says, "Salt: you'll know."
I did not know. I called her four times this morning. She picked up every time, and she never once drove over to fix it, which I now understand was the hardest part of the recipe.
Mom, thank you for thirty-one years of this table, and for letting me try. Everyone, raise whatever's in your glass. To Mom, and to knowing.
Why it works: One object, the recipe card, carries thirty years of Christmases so the speaker doesn't have to list them. The line on the card gives her a joke and a compliment at once, and the last line calls back to it.
Make it yours
Borrow the shape, not the lines. Put your own people, your own year and your own detail in each spot, or answer a few questions and get a first draft built from them.