Saturday, October 09, 2010

10 steps to a stress free holiday.

Somehow or other, I always manage to get myself stressed out around the holidays.  Christmas is my fav occasion to lose my mind over, but Thanksgiving takes a toll on my sanity as well.  Oh yeah - and this year I offered to cook Thanksgiving dinner (I don't know what I was thinking either - my in-laws must have spiked my wine with something).

I put off thinking about Thanksgiving for as long as possible (queen of avoidance at your service).  On Thursday I decided "this is dumb, I should just figure out a way to get this meal prepared so I don't have to do it all on Sunday".  So I made a list of things I could do to make this "a stress free holiday".

10 steps to a stress free holiday:

  1. go through all of your recipes and figure out what ingredients you need to buy a few days beforehand 
  2. don't try to cook everything from scratch - it's okay to buy a ready made pie for dessert - nobody will notice and it will probably taste better than anything you could have made anyway
  3. do all of your grocery shopping early, preferably on a Friday night when nobody will be in the store
  4. prepare as much as you can the day before the meal - thinks like stuffing don't have to be made the day of
  5. tell your guests to bring the wine (but be sure to have some "cooking wine" in the kitchen with you so you can have a glass before your guests arrive)
  6. before you really get into the final cooking prep, clean up your kitchen, empty your dishwasher and clear counter space so that you aren't tripping over yourself in the final sprint of getting the turkey carved, the potatoes mashed, and everyone seated at the table
  7. don't worry about cleaning your house - your guests should be happy they didn't have to prepare the dinner and if they criticize how you keep your house, never invite them for another meal, ever
  8. wear your eating pants 
  9. make sure you get to sit down during the meal to enjoy your hard work - people can get up off their own asses to serve themselves seconds
  10. feel free to stay in the kitchen doing dishes (drinking wine) after the meal if the conversation bores you

These are my strategies to getting through tomorrow.  Steps 1 - 7 are complete.  Only 3 more to go!  What do you do minimize your stress during the holidays?

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:12 p.m.

    Step #11: Go to Alana & Jay's house because they love you. Bring the honey badger if so inclined.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well you can do what I did and think your family dinner is on Saturday when actually it is on Sunday. Now I'm ready a day ahead of time! : )

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:15 p.m.

    Can I come to your house, Jen?

    OM

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous9:27 p.m.

    "where my eating pants?" Not sure, they must be in the laundry.

    I kid because I love.

    Scott

    ReplyDelete