Entertaining for Thanksgiving....

When people ask "what can I bring?" take them up on the offer! If everyone brings one thing - a side dish, a dessert or something then it'll be so much easier for you. Of the things you do make, do as much ahead of time as possible. You can start planning your menu now and planning your grocery shopping list. Have a happy holiday!

Good Morning S., What luck to have posted this question today when the extra at the top is Party Like Martha with tips.. :))
Beth is right what ever you can do ahead of time will make it so much easier in the preparing stages. Make sure you have Frig space to hold things. Were all going to my step dad & step mom's this year.. LOL yeah you read right My mom & step dad were married 44 yrs Mom passed away last year of Alzheimer's. Dad remarried with all of our blessings, so we have a step dad ( who is more like our honest to goodness real dad) and step mom. They are remodeling Dads house and want to be able to bring all of us together for the first time. Looking forward to it. I will ask CJ what I can bring and you should allow others to bring dishes also if they ask.

Have a great time, make your lists and check um twice. Or in my case several times before shopping.

God Bless you
K. Nana of 5
PS. I know your single so this wouldn't matter to you at all, but it is funny in a way. My Hubby and our eldest son are a sticklers for lists, if it's not on it we don't get it right!?!?! Wrong, DIL & I take the pens we make our lists with, with us and write down on the list anything else we saw we needed....lol It's on the list!!!! Problem solved :))

When our family gets together usually at my sisters, I make up a menu and send it out mostly email, family members sign up what they would like to bring and those who live farther away usually bring the drinks or paper goods or cookies. Then she tries to have at least 3 areas set up for groups to visit, that way your not all in one room trying to talk over what the guys are saying or watching on tv. Usually a tray of light snacks on the kitchen bar, and cups have been marked with everyones name so you can help yourself to a drink any time and not lose your cup. of course this informal and relaxed and everyone plays cards or visits after the dinner. Kids are playing downstairs in the basement. What ever you do just plan ahead and prepare ahead and things will be more relaxed for you also. enjoy

Hi S.,
You didn't mention where you live, but I would highly recommend getting a fresh turkey from Hen House and then taking it directly over to Fritz's smokehouse on State Line road. That way, all you have to do on the big day is stick it in the oven and warm it up. It's already cooked and will taste awesome.

The bird can be the biggest stress of the day (getting up early, is it cooked enough, what if everything else is done before the turkey, etc...) This will solve that problem!

Good luck with your first big meal and don't forget to have FUN! Enjoy this time with your family!

S.,
You've gotten some great advice here, so I'll skip over all the menu suggestions, etc.. and just share what I've learned over the last few years of hosting our families Thanksgiving. Things are going to happen, go wrong, but don't sweat it...laugh it off. I used to get stressed out when the littlest thing would go haywire, because I wanted everything to be perfect, but my family would just tell me to calm down...and I finally figured out that that is exactly what it's all about, is my family getting together and celebrating our blessings. So, even though you are going to be busy, remember to laugh, smile and have a good day! Oh, and one more thing that I found out being the cook is that by the time you get to sit down to eat, you're usually not that hungry! LOL!!!

I would focus on a simple but good dishes. Don't try to over do it by making a bunch of different types of things. Same with desserts, keep it simple for yourself.

I agree with take advantage of anyone who offers to bring something.

They have really nice plastic plates and silver ware, I would do that. Saves time on doing dishes.

We always divide the responsiblities up between the families. The family hosting makes the main meal...then everyone else brings an hor'dearves and dessert (plus their own drinks). The hostess is responsible for main meal, milk, water, tea & coffee.

We always divided the adults from the kiddies so the kids didn't have to "behave like adults" and be bored to tears with our conversation.

Make sure you have a game room set up for the kids to go to so that before and after dinner they have a place to go that is adult-free...videos, games, toys, etc. If your daughter has breakables or things she DOESN'T want her cousins to play with MAKE SURE THEY ARE PUT UP & AWAY before the guests arrive!

We also encouraged family members to bring games and we'd have a game night after dinner...Picitonary, Caboo, Poker, Trivia Pursuit, Catch Phrase...all different kinds of games we've played through the years & had a blast at!

Oh, and if you truly want to save your sanity...get the BIG rectangular hefty disposable plates for dinner. If you've got silverware use it, if not just go with the good plastic version. Set out Sharpie markers so guests can mark their plastic cups with their names (or let your daughter decorate them...she can also do place cards for the table if you want a seating arrangement). Save yourself the hassle of the dishes...it's SOOO worth the few pennies just to throw away...make sure a trash can is close to the back door so you can keep refilling it! ;)

Plan ahead. Know about how long each dish needs to prepare and cook, and plan accordingly. As someone else said, make a list and check it twice--or better yet, several times!

If you buy a frozed turkey, make sure you give it MORE TIME to defrost than the package states. Don't make too many things that require warming in the oven--the more you open that door, the longer the turkey will take to bake!

Anything you can do ahead of time, do! In the same vein, choose recipes that are not too complicated or that take too much time or effort ("simple" appetizers where each one must be wrapped in bacon is very time-consuming when you are making 80 of them, for example--BTDT!).

Try out any new recipe you plan to use in a small batch beforehand--you do NOT want to discover that you don't LIKE this version of pumpkin pie when it's too late to make another!

And accept any offers of help: "Can I bring something?" Yes! "Would you like me to arrange these on the dessert table for you?" Yes! "Want some help with the dishes?" Yes!

Most of all, don't panic if something isn't perfect. It's really about enjoying the time with family and friends, and being thankful for what we've been given. You can do that even if the rolls are a little burned on the bottom and the cups on the table are all different colors. ;-)

--A.

The meal is never a problem at our house its making sure their is conversation! My husbands only family is his mom and her husband (there are others but his mom hasn't spoken to them in 20 years - long story!) And my family is all back home in Chicago except my brother and his family. My mom will fly here as well. My MIL is a very anxious/nervous person and tends to make everyone uncomfortable albeit unintentionally. If it were up to her the two families wouldn't mix - somehow in her mind that is the way it should be. But because our families are so small we always wanted our holidays to be together. We stress about what everyone will talk about - because my MIL is so anxious she will say things like "Well, I don't know anything else!" almost dismissing the conversation. My biggest concern is I just worked several hours to prepare a nice dinner and she is clearing it away before everyone has even had the gravy passed! She's so uptight she cant eat! We have tried different strategies and the one that our kids love is for everyone to go around the table and talk about what they are thankful for. They can take as much time as they want and its pretty funny to hear what the 5 year old comes up with! And it keeps everyone at the table enjoying their meal. With a bigger family you could just explain to each table what to do - everyone wont hear everything that is said but at least it will be a good way to catch up with each other. Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

a few things come to mind... make sure you have seating for everyone when dinner comes, even if its several tables in separate rooms. When I hosted it in our new home we hadn't furnished our dining-living room combo room so I was actually able to put in 3 tables! I had a few snacks while dinner is being prepared, and I found that with our guant family setting the kitchen up as a "buffet line" worked great. The tables were set up with everything but a plate which the folks grabbed at the beginning of the line then filled up and took to the table themselves. I had gotten small fun containers so that each table had 3 things of butter and several baskets of bread, and I had several salt and pepper shakers on each table as well. Chill your wine ahead of time if you are serving it. If anyone drinks coffee set your coffee pot timer to start brewing about 1/2 way through dinner, this was it will be ready and fresh when its time for desert. We had a few games set out in case anyone wanted to play after dinner, and several people did end up playing a heated game on Monopoly that still gets talked about 5 years later! haha! Music... have some light music playing in the background during dinner, it creates a relaxing environment and actually invites conversation better than complete silence. I think the biggest thing is to try really hard to relax (ha!) and do not be afraid to ask for help. Good luck!