QUICK THINGS TO DO TODAY:
- Try to get your grocery shopping done very soon. The closer it gets to Thanksgiving, the busier and crazier the stores get. Try to plan ahead so you don’t have to run to the store at the last minute on Thanksgiving.
- If you’re hosting a gathering at your house, be sure you have fresh tasting ice cubes, and plenty of them. Pick out an ice cube from your freezer, smell and taste it. Does it taste fresh and delicious, or has it picked up food smells? Make fresh ice if needed (unless you plan to pick up Party Ice bags for Thanksgiving). Empty, scrub and refill your ice cube trays, or empty out your icemaker box and let it start over. With 2 days to go til Thanksgiving, your icebox should be refilled in plenty of time.
- If you’re hosting the meal, check over your menu plans. Do you have the traditional Thanksgiving foods coming? Turkey (or veggie alternative), sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie? Corn, if that’s your tradition? Plenty of food for any vegetarians or people who keep gluten-free?
- Do you need to do any laundry, launder table linens or hand towels? Your tablecloth might need to be ironed?
- Are your dishes clean and ready to be set on the table? Do you have plenty of goblets or drinking glasses sparkling and ready?
- If you have overnight guests coming, do you have breakfast foods in the house? I don’t often eat cereal, so I need to remember to at the very least stock milk and Cheerios. I also want to be sure to have orange juice to offer the next morning. Do you have warm things to serve for breakfasts? Oatmeal, Malt-O-Meal or Cream of Wheat? Coffee? (I struggle with remembering to stock coffee since I’m a tea drinker).
- Clean off and sanitize your home telephone (and cellphones too, if you have time). I don’t know about you, but my cell phone gets covered in makeup and my kitchen phone gets grimy fingerprints on it. Because of the holidays, your phone is likely to get a lot of extra use this week – calls coming in, relatives borrowing the phone to call out. A quick wipedown and some Windex will do the trick.
- What movies will you show family members while they wait for (or recover from) the Thanksgiving meal. Can you find your DVDs and have them ready? Or do you just watch the Macy’s parade or a football game?
TODAY’S PROJECT: Thanksgiving Preparations
If you’re traveling out of town, rather than hosting at home, you still might want to join the rest of us in tidying our homes today. That way you’ll come back after a long, tiring journey, to a shining clean, relaxing house.
KITCHEN:
We sorted and organized our kitchens last month to prepare for the holidays. Now I don’t know about you, but I let my normal maintenance cleaning slip a bit lately, and I have a bit extra work to do to get my kitchen ready for the holidays. Luckily I’m going to someone else’s house for Thanksgiving dinner this year! My counters are cleared off and got spritzed with a nice smelling lemon citrus counter cleanser last night, and my cupboards are still pretty well organized. The dishwasher is empty. My kitchen floor needs to be scrubbed and mopped (as always, thanks to my muddy-footed dogs). Finish what you have left to do in your kitchen, and let’s move on to our dining rooms.
DINING ROOM:
Start by clearing off your dining table, if needed. Don’t just move mail to another table, making a mess for another day. Now is a good time to stop and organize it, pay bills, file things and burn or shred those pesky credit card applications.
Dust off and polish your dining table, then set it with your tablecloth, tablerunner, placemats or whatever you intend to use for Thanksgiving or even for your next upcoming meal.
Look around your dining room and see what else needs to be done. Do you have furniture to dust? Have your windows been washed, inside and out, in the last month? Dust and clean off your dining chairs. While doing so, remove them from the area and vacuum or mop the floor under your table. If you have time and someone to help you to move your table, it makes it a lot easier to clean the floor.
Do a last check to see if there is anything in the dining room that doesn’t belong (shoes, toys, clutter, dead houseplants?).
Do you need to have a box of Kleenex handy for the inevitable “What are you thankful for?” discussion. Often that makes someone cry at the table!
Finish by spritzing the room with home fragrance, and setting the table with some pretty fall-colored unscented candles. Put out any last fall decorations you might have wanted to put up. It’s a day too early to get fresh flowers for the table if you are hosting a meal, though. You want them as fresh as possible.
FAMILY/LIVING ROOM:
Let’s move on to our living rooms, where it’s likely our guests will retire with aching bellies, for hours of football, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, or chatting and visiting. Dust, remove clutter, vacuum, wash windows, clean off coffee table, fold throws. Be sure to dust off the TV screen.
Does your family have a particular movie they watch on Thanksgiving? “Home for the Holidays,” “Planes Trains and Automobiles,” “The Sound of Music,” or “The Wizard of Oz” perhaps? Do you have kids’ movies ready to go? Make sure you know where your DVD movies are and have them accessible.
Do you have children coming to visit? Get out toys, books, and games – maybe store them in an attractive basket in a corner of the room.
Refresh houseplants and toss any dead ones. Does your fireplace look neat and tidy? Do you have firewood, kindling and/or Duraflames ready to light in it? Set out a magazine or two or coffee table books, and finish by spraying your home spray in the room.
Tomorrow I’ll be working on my guest bathrooms so they are ready for company.
PEP TALK:
Keep your spirits up and don’t get overwhelmed. We still have a couple days until the holiday. Don’t forget to make time for yourself for some “down time” every day. A happy mom makes for a happy home. Build in some magazine reading time, bath time, or even mindless TV watching for a few minutes a day. The more private time you give yourself, the better a hostess you’ll be during the holiday week. And remember.. Thanksgiving doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful.
LOVELY BLOGS: Cannella Vita
“The story of a girl baking her way through high school.” Erica chose this name for her blog because it means “Cinnamon life” in Italian. She’s been interested in cooking ever since fifth grade. I think you’ll enjoy her recent posts on her Thanksgiving menu; apple cornbread stuffing; chicken tortilla soup and panettone.
http://cannella-vita.blogspot.com/
LOVELY LINKS FOR TODAY:
Boston Cream Pie Tutorial (Bobbie’s Baking Blog)
Cornbread and Wild Rice Stuffing with Hazelnuts and Cranberries (Feed Me Phoebe)
Going all In on Thanksgiving: A Thanksgiving Table for 40 (NY Times)
Pinecone Turkeys Craft (All Good in Mommyhood)
Lori
"And remember.. Thanksgiving doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful." I need to keep repeating this to myself, and maybe also have my mother repeat it to herself. Thanks for the encouragement!