Preparing and Organizing for Thanksgiving

Are You Prepared?

How do you prepare and organize for Thanksgiving?

Of course there are different preparations for the different scenarios.  Is Thanksgiving at your house?  Are you driving near by to someone else’s home?  Are you traveling?

Here are a few of my tips if Thanksgiving is going to be at your house:

Thanksgiving Preparation:

1) Have your menu prepared this week.  (hopefully it is already done)
2) Write out your shopping list and look for coupons
3)  Make a time line for when you are preparing your meal.  Thaw the frozen bird (what day?).  Making some things a couple days in advance and freezing or making fresh that morning.

Organized Thanksgiving Bin

Some of my favorite tips for making things easier (if not this year…than next) is to have a bin like I have in the picture for your Thanksgiving supplies to be stored in.  You know where to find that Kosher salt that you may only use once a year for the brine mixture for the turkey, etc.

1) I make copies of  my Thanksgiving recipes that I know we will have every year and store them in the bin.
2) I keep my electric knife in our bin since we don’t usually use it other than Thanksgiving.
3) Thanksgiving decorations, special bowls and my turkey serving platter are in the bin.

It just makes things so easy.  I bring the bin up a couple weeks before Thanksgiving to get my recipes out and decorate.  What are some things you would put in your bin?

If there are a few little tricks that we can use to decrease stress for holidays like Thanksgiving… then its worth it isn’t it?  I’m all about making things easier instead of harder.  Here is my post from last year for Organizing for Thanksgiving.

How could this make your Thanksgiving a little more organized in the prep stage?

Organizing for Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving can be a time of stress but shouldn’t be. It should be a time of family fun and everyone coming together to eat a wonderful meal. Of course it is all to help us remember and realize how thankful we need to be for everything we have.

There are many this Thanksgiving who have lost their jobs, lost family members or are fighting life threatening illnesses. Along with our thanks we need to pray for them.

Enjoy your family, make amends if things are problematic and have a fun day together. To help make your day come off without a hitch planning ahead is essential.

Here is my list of To Do’s that may help you in keeping your cooking/planning stress down so that you can enjoy what is most important on Thanksgiving: Family and Friends
1) Make a list of who is coming to your meal.
2) Plan the menu. Make note of what days you are going to prepare each item.
3) Make a grocery list from the menu.
4) Check what you have to see what you need to buy.
5) Plan your grocery shopping day, making sure you have time for thawing of your turkey or premaking dishes. (Good  idea to make room in your refrigerator by cleaning out the old left overs, so you have room for all the food).
6) Do your shopping.
7) Try to clean your house in preparation the day before you have to do your cooking so you don’t over load yourself. Have your kids and husband help if possible.
8) Start your cooking, making sure you have storage space for the food. (Plastic bags can store many things including sauces. Just seal tight and lay flat..you can add many layers of food in a small space.)
9) Plan your Thanksgiving day cooking so that everything finishes about the same time.
10) Clean as you go and you won’t have as many dishes to wash after dinner.

Personally I am one that does the basic clean up to make room to get pies out and served, but I have no problem letting dishes set until after all my family/company has left. I would much rather spend time visiting with them while they are here than being up to my elbows in suds in the kitchen.

Eat lots of turkey, take that walk after the meal and enjoy family!

(this is a revised version of post from last year.)