The Thanksgiving Plan

Last year was not the best Thanksgiving ever for me. I didn't have enough seating for everyone, I burnt the pumpkin pie and I was not impressed with my stuffing. It could have been worse though, my great aunt wasn't able to pick apart the dining ware as I had just bought brand new from Pier One. Ha!

The one thing that I learned from last year was that I needed a plan. Not just any plan. I needed a Thanksgiving plan that would not end in a Thanksgiving horror story. I knew that this year I wanted to make sure that I didn't burn any of the foods, while also creating wonderful food for my family, and I wanted to be able to spend some of that time with my family enjoying being together. I didn't want to spend another year in the kitchen all day.

My Thanksgiving Day plan now consists of a few things. I'm going to run down a few of them here. Hopefully, they will give you some insight into how you can plan for your Thanksgiving so that you too can spend it with family and not be a slave to the stove.

First, I created a large list that detailed what I wanted to accomplish for the day of Thanksgiving. I made sure that I had my shopping lists for foods, dinnerware, entertainment and any cooking equipment that I would need.

Then, I made a chart for seating arrangements and another chart that consisted of the seven days leading up to Thanksgiving. This second chart contains all of the things I need to do on each of those days so that I'm not pulling my hair out on Thanksgiving.

I made sure that I had all of my recipes out, in advance, and made sure that all of the ingredients I needed were on my shopping list. I made sure to double check this one!

I came up with some ideas for the kids, so that they weren't bored while the guys hogged the tv for the football game and added the list of items that I would need to my shopping lists any non food related items went on the other list.

As the count down towards Thanksgiving Day approaches, I 'm looking at my charts and calender and can feel a wave of relief as I know that this year, I won't be hyperventilating and stuck in the kitchen the whole time.

I hope that you take my advice and plan ahead.

If you would like to learn more about this Thanksgiving Day planner and the charts that go with it go to www.happy-thanksgiving-2007.blogspot.com [http://www.happy-thanksgiving-2007.blogspot.com] and get this planner for yourself. It's worth it!

In addition, you can also receive a book on how to wrap up Thanksgiving Day cooking when you've run out of time, some great pumpkin pie and turkey recipes, a complete list of what you should do leading up to Thanksgiving and a complete grocery list for the big day.