QUICK THINGS TO DO TODAY:
- Are your kitchen sponges or dish scrubbers old and yucky looking? Need to replace them?
- Need to go grocery shopping for the week? I highly recommend doing it before Wednesday afternoon. Avoid stores on Wednesday and Thursday if you can help it. Crowded, crowded!
- Fill up with gas if needed, so if you have to go out for errands later this week you won’t have to stop for gas.
- Do you have a fireplace? Have wood for festive fires for this week? You might especially want to lay in a supply of firewood if you have company coming over.
- Speaking of keeping warm, your guests might not be used to the temperature you keep your home. If you keep it cold, be sure there are plenty of blankets, warm socks and clean slippers to offer. Or be generous and accomoating – turn the heat up a degree or two for your guests who would prefer it.
- Doing ok on coffee and tea to serve guests and to keep yourself caffeinated while you cook?
- Need to write any Thanksgiving cards to mail out soon?
- Visit the bank or post office tomorrow or Wednesday, before the holiday, if needed.
TODAY’S PROJECT: Thanksgiving Prep
Use this time to pack, cook, bake, clean the house, write holiday cards, spend time talking about gratitude with your children, read books together, have a game night with your family, sort the pantry, go shopping, or do other pre-holiday things you might need to get done.
Don’t forget to build yourself in a little “sit down and relax” time, whether you spend it in a hot bath, a rocking chair, a cafe you snuck away to for 45 minutes, or on your couch idly flipping through magazines.
I’m going to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving, bringing a dish I can easily prepare that morning. So for today my tasks are vacuuming, cleaning muddy dog paw prints off the floors, spritzing the house with fragrance spray, and tidying the bathrooms.
LOVELY BLOGS: The Faux Martha
Melissa is a designer by day, and a baker by night. Currently her blog is chock full of comfort food recipes: chicken noodle soup, a beautifully photographed cranberry sauce, apple pie, and chicken pot pie that takes a lot of ingredients but looks well worth the trouble.
LOVELY LINKS FOR TODAY:
Autumnal Centerpieces (Martha Stewart)
Cheddar Cheese Risotto (Nigella Lawson)
Chocolate Crunch Cake and Making Your Own Christmas Hamper (Not Quite Nigella)
Cranberry Pumpkin Pie (An American Cupcake in London)
Four-Ingredient Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins (Bake at 350)
How to Make a Pilgrim Hat (Art Platter)
Paper Cup Turkeys (Fun Family Crafts)
Pretend Pilgrims Tutorial (Made)
Pumpkin Cake with Cranberry Gelee (Cake O Cake)
Pumpkin Seed Cranberry Biscotti (DeLish)
Secrets of Women Who Don’t Get Sick (CNN)
10 Gorgeous Gray Rooms (House Beautiful)
Thanksgiving Turkey Cupcakes (Brown-Eyed Baker)
20 Guests, 19 Pies: What Happens When a Thanksgiving Tradition Gets Completely out of Hand (Slate)