Don’t Forget

IS YOUR THANKSGIVING TURKEY THAWING????? Just a reminder.

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.)

Thanksgiving supplies

Thanksgiving Organizations

Thanksgiving is over and we need to think about getting out the Christmas decorations, but what is the best way to store your Thanksgiving supplies? To make it easiest for next year I suggest a clear container, preferably a fall colored one. Label what is in the container.

Meal Plan with Shopping list Saved
One thing I did last year that my husband was thrilled with was I kept the shopping list he made up last year on the computer. We got all the recipes together we were going to make (he makes the turkey, duck and a few side dishes)and he made up a shopping list. I had taken and made copies of all the recipes we had last year. I made notes on the recipes if the kids liked them or if there were any little tweaks we made to them and if they worked or not. I took those copies and the shopping list and clipped them altogether and put in the Thanksgiving bin. It made it very easy this year!

Thanksgiving meal Organizing

Thanksgiving Meal Organizing

Chances are you have already completed your Thanksgiving meal shopping and have your turkey thawing in the refrigerator and some of your other side dishes completed. But planning a large meal or gathering can be very difficult if you have a hard time organizing things. Organizing can and usually does cross boarders into other areas of your life, not just your home and where things are, but time management which plans into the event planning.
But there are some essential factors if you want your meal to come off without forgetting the butter at the store or the turkey pan.

Planning your Thanksgiving Meal
*Make a list of who is coming to your meal.
*Plan the menu. Make note of what days you are going to prepare each item.
*Make a grocery list from the menu.
*Check what you have to see what you need to buy.
*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).
*Do your shopping.
*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.
*Start your cooking, making sure you have storage space for the food.
*Plan your Thanksgiving day cooking so that everything finishes about the same time.

This a little late to help you for tomorrow (unless you are a real procrastinator!) but it may help you for your next big meal!

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

Storing Holiday Decorations

Storing Holiday Decorations

What do you do with all those Thanksgiving, Christmas decorations, Halloween ghost and goblins, Easter baskets, New Years Eve and 4th of July decorations? They can take up a lot of storage space (especially Christmas if you are anything like me). But stores are gearing up and selling a lot more decorations for all holidays and it is easy to jump into the decorating phase. I saw a house this Halloween that had more decorations and blow up characters and lights than you usually see at Christmas.
**You need to make sure you have the room to store them if you buy them.

Clear Colored Plastic Containers work best.
I suggest that you look for the clear colored containers they have out for that holiday. I think these are great!! I can go down and immediately find my Halloween decorations because they are the ones in the orange and black (clear orange) containers. Of course they are still labeled..but it makes it so easy. My Easter containers are pink and Christmas is red and green. Again I still go for the clear over solid non-see through bins. So if you can’t find the colored clear ones, then just get clear. Being able to see what is in the at a glance is time saving!
So before you buy anymore decoration, make sure you have the room to store them, then find clear colored bins to store each separate holiday in. Still label it and getting out decorations will become a very simple thing!