As a new year approaches, I like to aspire to an out-with-the-old and in-with-the-new mantra. But I had not planned on that including my refrigerator.

It all began Wednesday night after the last child had driven off, and I had wiped away tears for the umpteenth time. I decided it was time to settle in for a quiet night. Well, maybe not so quiet — I did pull out the vacuum to begin the clean-up of crumbs, glitter, and the stray dog hairs that walked themselves in on the soles of our shoes.

But when I felt like I had at least addressed the initial layer of Christmas clean-up, hubby and I finally sat down for a meal of leftover goodies.

As I opened the fridge to pull out the ham and turkey, I noticed a slight smell, but I just chalked it up to the assortment of foods that had been ever so slightly crammed inside for the past week.

It wasn’t until later that night that I discovered I was wrong. My now almost-empty fridge had a problem and so did the freezer. When I went to grab some ice for a glass of water, the cubes were quite soft and in the bottom of the tray water had begun to puddle.

I informed hubby, but he was glued to the TV watching a football game and therefore said he would check it in the morning.

Well, when morning came, it was even more obvious that the refrigerator and freezer were not doing their job.

So, I called my dad to see if he had a number for a repair man. Obviously, he did. My dad is an apartment owner and retired contractor, so he has folks like this on speed dial.

Lucky for me the fellow showed up in record time even though it was the day after Christmas. But that is where my good fortune ended because the diagnosis, sadly, was not good. My compressor was going out and to replace it would cost nearly as much as a new fridge.

The situation was now dire. Well maybe not dire. We do have an old used model in the storeroom to help when we have overflow and to keep soft drinks and Gatorade chilled. However, it is smaller than the one inside and it does not have an ice maker.

Therefore, the next step would be to find a replacement and one that was of a brand the repairman had suggested, so hubby and I set out to do just that. One would assume this would not be that big of a deal, but because we live in a stainless-steel world and my kitchen appliances are white, finding a fridge was an issue.

So-much-so, in our quest we wound up having to go to Jackson.

I didn’t begin to panic until we left the third retail store and had come up empty handed. Our last stop was at Cowboy Kitchens in Ridgeland and thankfully they had a model that would work.

It wasn’t in stock, but the sales rep said she could get it to me in a couple of weeks.

While this was certainly going to be inconvenient, I just couldn’t seem to be dismayed with my dilemma. Because all I could think about was what if this had happened just a few days earlier.

Talk about a Christmas being spoiled.

The new year is just days away and while I will be ushering in a new refrigerator with it, I also look forward to all the cool stuff 2025 has in store for me.

Terri Cowart Frazier writes features for The Vicksburg Post. She can be reached at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com.