Tuesday's Thanksgiving prep update

As of 5 pm today all Thanksgiving food, with the exception of the turkey, has been cooked/prepped for Thursday. In fact, if Thanksgiving were to be suddenly moved to Wednesday, I would be ready! This is in spite of the fact that Monday's HVAC visit resulted in an overloaded circuit of some sort and we were without power in part of the house until another HVAC guy came out this afternoon.

 

Thanksgiving to do list :

• clean/condition the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms (this stuff is amazing. My cabinets look so much better and the house smells nice and citrusy)
• Pull recipes for my go-to Thanksgiving recipes (chocolate chunk pecan pie and my apple pecan dressing)
• make shopping lists for Sprouts and Wal Mart
• determine menu with family (we do potluck style meals)
  
• go shopping at Sprouts and Wal Mart
  
• deep clean kitchen and bathrooms
  
• vacuum
  
• clean windows
• clean bottom of oven so it doesn't smoke during the Alton Brown turkey roasting method
• clear out/organize fridge to make room for ridiculous quantities of food
• tidy up front yard vegetation (aka: make it look like we don't live in a jungle)
• clean carpets (thanks to a Bissell carpet cleaner borrowed from some friends)
• make brine for turkey
• chop veggies for dressing
• make cornbread for dressing
  
• toast and cube bread for dressing
  
• chop pecans and apples for dressing (okay, so the dressing is a little labor intensive, Keith and I think it's amazing and totally worth it)
• meet with A/C repairmen for the 84th time since July
  
• change out front door handle and locks (Keith)
• change out guest bath toilet seat (Keith)
• hang hand towel ring in guest bath (Keith)
• change out smoke detector in the hallway (Keith)--no, not in preparation for my cooking; it's just a task we've procrastinated on
• rehang hallway light that is trying to fall down 
• meet the HVAC guy again
  
• mow, if the yard dries out in time (Keith)
• dust
• sweep front porch
• clean porch light
  
• make pie crusts
• bake pies

do Wednesday

• sautee veggies for dressing 
• mix dressing
• prep and brine turkey
• enjoy the day
• do all of the other things I inevitably procrastinated on earlier in the week
• go to bed at a reasonable hour on Thanksgiving Eve for quite possibly the first time in our marriage
  

do Thanksgiving day

• roast Turkey
• bake dressing
• eat
• play games
• eat 
• play games
• eat
• go to bed late, but happy

making good progress!

I feel like we're making great progress, even if we're not right on schedule. Of course, Keith  decided to add a few things to the list.

 

Thanksgiving to do list :

• clean/condition the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms (this stuff is amazing. My cabinets look so much better and the house smells nice and citrusy)
• Pull recipes for my go-to Thanksgiving recipes (chocolate chunk pecan pie and my apple pecan dressing)
• make shopping lists for Sprouts and Wal Mart
• determine menu with family (we do potluck style meals)
  
• go shopping at Sprouts and Wal Mart
  
• deep clean kitchen and bathrooms
  
• vacuum
  
• clean windows
• clean bottom of oven so it doesn't smoke during the Alton Brown turkey roasting method
• clear out/organize fridge to make room for ridiculous quantities of food
• tidy up front yard vegetation (aka: make it look like we don't live in a jungle)
• clean carpets (thanks to a Bissell carpet cleaner borrowed from some friends)
• make brine for turkey
• chop veggies for dressing
• make cornbread for dressing
  
• toast and cube bread for dressing
  
• chop pecans and apples for dressing (okay, so the dressing is a little labor intensive, Keith and I think it's amazing and totally worth it)
• meet with A/C repairmen for the 84th time since July
  
• change out front door handle and locks (Keith)
• change out guest bath toilet seat (Keith)
• hang hand towel ring in guest bath (Keith)
• change out smoke detector in the hallway (Keith)--no, not in preparation for my cooking; it's just a task we've procrastinated on
• mow, if the yard dries out in time (Keith)

do Tuesday

• dust
• sweep front porch
• clean porch light
  
• make pie crusts
• bake pies

do Wednesday

• sautee veggies for dressing 
• mix dressing
• prep and brine turkey
• enjoy the day
• do all of the other things I inevitably procrastinated on earlier in the week
• go to bed at a reasonable hour on Thanksgiving Eve for quite possibly the first time in our marriage
  

do Thanksgiving day

• roast Turkey
• bake dressing
• eat
• play games
• eat 
• play games
• eat
• go to bed late, but happy

Countdown to Thanksgiving

This year I'm determined to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas rather than participate in a procrastination-triggered frenzy the night before. Therefore, I actually began my Thanksgiving cleaning and meal plannig on Saturday. Yes, a full week and 5 days early. Don't get too impressed, though--we'll have to see how good my holiday preparation stamina really is. As an even bigger challenge, I want to have the house clean and all prep done before Tuesday evening. It's crazy, but my sister-in-law is visiting from Colorado and I want to make sure we get to spend as much time with her as possible during the few days she's here. To keep myself somewhat accountable, I'm going to create a to do list and post it here.

already done (listed here because it's more stuff I get to cross off):

• cleaned/conditioned the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms (this stuff is amazing. My cabinets look so much better and the house smells nice and citrusy)
• Pulled recipes for my go-to Thanksgiving recipes (chocolate chunk pecan pie and my apple pecan dressing)
• made shopping lists for Sprouts and Wal Mart

do this week:

• determine menu with family (we do potluck style meals)
  
• go shopping at Sprouts and Wal Mart
  
• deep clean kitchen and bathrooms
  
• vacuum
  
• clean windows
• clean bottom of oven so it doesn't smoke during the Alton Brown turkey roasting method
• clear out/organize fridge to make room for ridiculous quantities of food
• tidy up front yard vegetation (aka: make it look like we don't live in a jungle)
  

do Monday

• make brine for turkey
• chop veggies for dressing
• make cornbread for dressing
  
• toast and cube bread for dressing
  
• chop pecans and apples for dressing (okay, so the dressing is a little labor intensive, Keith and I think it's amazing and totally worth it)
  

do Tuesday

• dust
• sweep front porch
• make pie crusts
• bake pies

do Wednesday

• sautee veggies for dressing 
• mix dressing
• prep and brine turkey
• enjoy the day
• do all of the other things I inevitably procrastinated on earlier in the week
• go to bed at a reasonable hour on Thanksgiving Eve for quite possibly the first time in our marriage
  

do Thanksgiving day

• roast Turkey
• bake dressing
• eat
• play games
• eat 
• play games
• eat
• go to bed late, but happy

If this actually works, I'm creating a 4 week plan for Christmas. After that, I'm going to take over the world.