Planning for your Thanksgiving Dinner (gulp)

For 3 straight years, I hosted out of town guests, put on a meal to serve 12-18 people and then went on call for my job at either 3 or 6 that day. Last year I split the dinner with my neighbor, didn't host anyone, had another neighbor deep fry our turkey, and didn't work that day. Thanksgiving was like a vacation!

But if you are hosting and you are stressed out, I have some thoughts for you to make life a little easier.

1) Make everything ahead of time. I know this sounds crazy, and I would never have done it if I wasn't forced to by my circumstances, but you will enjoy Thanksgiving so much more. I plan that everything is made by the day before and just has to be placed in the oven the morning of. I had time to socialize with my guests, I wasn't stressed out, my kitchen was not a complete disaster and as I was making things, if I didn't have an ingredient, no big deal. I just went out and bought it without putting the meal in jeopardy.

Give Thanks (even when you are grumpy)

I bought this banner for $5 at Target a few weeks ago. Not that it matters, I just didn't want you to think I am super crafty, I didn't make it.

And I didn't even put the banner up to show how thankful I am; because most of the time I'm not. I put the banner up in my dining room to

Thanksgiving Chain in Progress

I think I need to clean my camera phone lens! Please excuse the poor picture.

I am so glad we started our thankfulness chain in October this year. If we miss a day here or there, we still have plenty of time to have a nice long chain. But it's also become part of a daily habit for us as a family. My sons are usually the first to remember that we need to fill in our links for the day and love to show it off to anyone who walks through our door. During the day my sons will mention things to be thankful of as they anticipate writing them down in the evening and stapling them to our list of thanksgiving.

Happy Autumn

I grew up in Texas. It's hot. It's hot almost all of the time. My brother and I were talking on the phone yesterday and it's still 90+ degrees there. So fall was always this nice nebulous idea, but not something I had really experienced. The leaves on the tree in our front yard wold turn brown overnight and fall off all at once. Lots of raking and little beauty. Having lived a few more places as an adult, I discovered I like autumn. I enjoy the cooling temperatures, the changing leaves, wearing a sweater, and (of course) the excuse to consume more hot drinks!

Along those lines, I believe Thanksgiving is overlooked. Right now the stores are full of things for Halloween, and before theses items are cleared, Christmas will be in full swing. Can I encourage you to pause, to breathe, to give thanks? To enjoy this momentary pause of beauty with the end of the growing cycle? There is plenty we all have to complain about, but let's try to take advantage of this little pause (a pause we may have to create) and make this a season of giving thanks. Not for just one day (or a few hours between the turkey, the game and the midnight store opening), but a season of thanks.