Pre-Thanksgiving preparations

Every year since I've been married I've always spent the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week "talking" about how I plan to spend ALL DAY Wednesday slaving over a hot stove. And sure enough every year for 7 years, I have spent the Wednesday before Thanksgiving the exact same way: lounging in front of the TV with snacks and soda. Today marks the first time that I've ever actually followed through with my original plan.

My grandmother is still in the hospital (although we're finally starting to see some real progress!!) so my mom and dad were not able to cook dinner this year. This is the first time in my entire life that my parents haven't cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Every year, my parents take care of the bulk of the cooking, while my sister and I coordinate on who will bring which side dishes. I am famous for both the macaroni and cheese and the potato salad that I prepare. This year, I also cooked cornbread dressing and sweet potato souffle (which I actually made last year for the first time as well). My hubby is very honest, and I sometimes dread his comments if I ask his opinion of what I prepared. I need his honesty so that I can get better, but after spending 9 hours cooking, sometimes it can be tough to deal well with criticism. I know that he hates cornbread dressing, but that happens to be my favorite Thanksgiving dish. He tasted it, and he actually said that was the best dressing that he had ever tasted in his life. YAY! I know that the macaroni will be the bomb along with the other dishes. But I was really concerned about how that dressing would turn out. My hubby is preparing greens w/smoked turkey and has already bought the turkey from Honey Baked Ham.

So the complete menu consists of: Turkey, cornbread dressing, macaroni & cheese, greens, sweet potato souffle, cornbread, potato salad, cranberries, and Dutch apple pie a-la mode. And this is only for two adults and two toddlers. How do those grandmothers with about 40 different people rolling through their house get everything prepared? They must begin cooking Thanksgiving dinner on Halloween or something.

Hard to believe that this year is winding down. If we make it to December 31 unscathed I'll begin obesessing over our Spring Break trip to Disney next March before we know it. :-)