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.