A few tips to make Thanksgiving Less Stressful
Posted by: TammyOkay, some of these tips can apply to ANY stressful event but I’m going to focus on the upcoming big event in most households this week.
-Mashed potatoes (or other mashed things like sweet potatoes or squash) can be kept warm in a crockpot for several hours! Make your dish ahead of time, add everything like you normally do and then place it in the crockpot on low or warm setting. BIG time saver and frees up another burner just before you serve up the meal.
-Set the table(s) the night before if you can. I won’t be able to set the kitchen table until just before the company arrives as it also serves as a prep area but I can set the dining room table and the other extra table that will be out the night before. The dishes won’t run away. 
-If you have boys like I do and have more than one toilet in the house than do your keep clean of the guest bathroom the night before and ban the boys from it to keep it clean! Yeah, that’s mom of boy humor but any one of you with boys will know and appreciate this tip!
-Consider purchasing a Nesco roasting oven. This oven is a God send!!! I can cook a 20lb turkey in this thing! It’s like having an extra oven that you can tuck into the bottom of closet any other time. So many people struggle with having enough oven room because the turkey is in there forever and you can’t bake anything else. This makes life so much easier and it can really be used year round (hmmm, perhaps that’s another post. LOL). Mine is a bit older and honestly, I wish I had the buffet tray that the newer ones have! Oh the possibilities!
Nesco 4808-2589PR 18-Quart Roaster Oven with Nonstick Cookwell and Buffet Kit
-Don’t try making new things on Thanksgiving day unless you’ve already made them at least once. Many a Thanksgiving day stresses are over new dishes that a hostess is trying for the first time. Don’t do this to yourself! Stick to tried and true and ultimately, less stressful.
-Don’t refuse help! Oh my gosh, if someone is offering to make something for you, then by all means, let them! I know, someone may not bake the apple pie just like you but your guests won’t care (unless you were the blue-winner at the county fair 
). At the same time, don’t refuse help in the kitchen! I know, too many cooks in the kitchen can be trouble but so is a host/hostess pulling out his/her hair!
-Along the lines of not refusing help, is knowing what you can prepare ahead of time. I make all homemade bread and rolls in my home. My guests have come to expect and love my homemade goodies and I wouldn’t disappoint them BUT I also know that I can prepare the breads the evening prior. You can also prepare some dishes the evening before BUT not cook them off until Thanksgiving. Pies can usually be done the night before as well. Bread stuffing can be made the night before (don’t stuff the turkey until Thanksgiving to prevent too much possible bacterial growth/contamination and if you want to make it easy, put bread stuffing in casserole dish instead), Consider creating menus with a lot of items that can be prepped the night before. Even if you can’t put something like scalloped potatoes together the night before, you can slice the potatoes and put them in a bowl of water for the night and then pull it all together on Thanksgiving. Think ahead of what you can dice, slice and chop up the day before. Every minute counts!
-Write down the menu! This helps you remember everything AND if you have help in the kitchen, they can look over the list and see what you’re working on and what still needs attention. Did I mention it helps you remember everything? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found something in the fridge I forgot to put out. D’uh moment! Writing down the menu also helps you make sure you have everything you need. Last minute trips to the store on Thanksgiving can get pricey because you often end up at a costly convenience store and they’ll inevitably NOT have what you need, leaving you to scramble for a last minute emergency substitution. UGH!
-You are not perfect! You are NOT perfect. YOU ARE NOT PERFECT! Do you get the idea? Don’t panic if you forget something or something isn’t ‘just’ right. You are not perfect! If they want perfection than let them ask God to host Thanksgiving next year! Do you best and it will all be fine.