Maddie had gone absolutely overboard. He couldn’t tell her that the baked noodles studded with candied fruit, “Fruitcake Kugel,” was a nightmare. The pile of potato cakes laid horizontal, covered in gravy to form a Latke Yule Log, was beyond inedible.

Instead, he feigned illness for the boss’s Chrismukkah potluck.

Jennifer Hrovat is an Ohioan who once majored in English in the hopes of becoming a best-selling novelist, but became a counselor instead. She enjoys running long distances, cooking, and reading about murder. Her cat stepped on the keyboard twelve times as she was trying to write this, so it was more difficult than the average submission.