Two more days! The time went by fast, didn’t it?
So, how much do you have left to do? I’m feeling pretty good about things. Here’s my game plan for today:
Food Prep
Getting as much food ready as possible in advance will make the big day less stressful. Start by chopping, cutting, slicing, and dicing any veggies you’ll need for salads, stuffing, veggie trays, relish trays, and the like. Put your trays together and make any dips. Prepare garnishes and store them in covered containers. Another helpful idea is to measure out ingredients you’ll need on Thanksgiving and store them in sealed containers. Zip top baggies work great for a variety of items, and you can write on them so you know what each item is and what it’s for. This way, you won’t have flour and sugar and measuring cups and spoons and things all over the kitchen (or perhaps not as many anyway). Place ingredients for each dish together. If you’ve measured out brown sugar and marshmallows, place them in the baking pan or casserole dish with the sweet potatoes. When it’s time to make candied yams, everything will be at your fingertips.
Baking
Most desserts will be fine if made today and stored properly. However, if you’re worried about freshness, prepare pie crusts, fillings, and other items today so they’re ready to pop into the oven tomorrow.
*Bread should be baked as close to the event as possible to ensure freshness.
Set up Extra Furniture
Get some help moving existing furniture if necessary and set up extra tables and chairs. Maybe you just need to add a leaf to your dining table and place a few extra chair around it. Get all the heavy stuff out of the way now. Drawing a diagram instead of moving around heavy furniture is a good idea. Get what you want down on paper first, and then start rearranging.
Place Cards
Have you made place cards? If you didn’t think you had time, simply print names on cardstock using your computer. With a hole-punch and some ribbon, you can customize your cards in seconds. This is a nice, relaxing way to end the day or spend some time kicking back with your kids. It’s also a nice touch for your table.
*We’ll probably end the day by tearing up bread for stuffing. It’s a tradition, a fun-filled event at my house, and the whole family gets involved.
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