This week I have the privilege (and I mean that) of having my mother and her family come stay with me for Thanksgiving. They’ll be arriving tomorrow evening and be here until Friday. We’re all excited. Me especially, because it has been years since I’ve had the fun of hanging out in the kitchen with my mother, who is a great cook. I miss those family preparations. Every Christmas I pack up the kids and head to my husband’s grandmother’s house to help prepare all the goodies for our annual Christmas Eve get-togethers, but since we only make desserts, it isn’t quite the same. Neither are the discussions, because my Mom and I talk about anything AND everything, with narry a silence in between.
So I’m really looking forward to them being here, but I’m not looking forward to the preparations. Now, normally, I’m not fanatical about cleaning my house. When it gets dirty, I’ll clean it. Eventually. But upon the imminent arrival of company, the house has to be spotless. (This is why I invite the Playfriends over all the time. It helps me keep up the housekeeping standards.) So I’ll spend today and tomorrow getting lots of dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping done (can you tell I have a thing about the floors?). Because you KNOW I've let everything go during NaNoWriMo...
The other thing I’m fanatical about is Being Prepared. I don’t like people to arrive for dinner to a meal that’s not done. It drives me crazy to not have everything I need laid out and ready when someone is coming over to work on a project. I’m just funny that way. Part of it is I don’t like keeping them waiting. The other part is I feel like a failure in some way if I’ve not completed my part of the bargain.
So for the last few weeks I’ve been buying up the groceries needed for our Thanksgiving cooking marathon. I made out a comprehensive list and started buying ahead of time to spread out the monetary damage. The plan was to have everything that would last in the house, with a last minute trip to buy perishable items. Guess what else I’m doing today?
So all this preparation may make me sound really organized, but I’m not. While I’m busy doing all this, the rest of my life is going to h*ll, because I can't be on top of everything at once. Oh well, we can't all be perfect, can we? :) And I'm still having to write until Wednesday, hopefully even more while everyone is here, if I can sneak away. I'd built in some Planned-For Days Off, but they got used up last week when my children were sick. Oh well, I'll just keep plugging along as best I can. (Check out my word count meter!!!)
How are you preparing for Thanksgiving this week? Any family coming in?
Angel
16 comments:
I only have #2 son coming in from college on Tuesday evening. I'm preparing by wiping down the guest bathroom, changing the sheets on the guest room bed (I slept in there when the DH was sick) and buying junk food for him while he's home.
I'm behind again on my word count. I get caught up and then I get behind. The clock's ticking toward the end and I am determined to hit 50K by December 30.
So... I approached the DH about buying a ready-made dinner from Publix. He agreed and I even had a coupon from the paper that gave me some extra items free. The price really wasn't bad for what I got, and now I don't have to spend all day cooking. Yay! This is a first for me. I've either cooked or we've been at another family member's house.
Christmas will be another matter because I'll have #1 and #2 son, DIL and BabyGrand. But NaNo will be over by then too.
Have fun with your mom. I know how much I enjoy having my mom visit. And while you're mopping, how about mopping over in my direction? ;-)
I'm going to my sister's where I'll be in charge of the kitchen, but not cooking. I think that means I'll be washing dishes all day. There will be about 31 of us. Unfortunately, my sons will be in St. Louis with their dad.
We'll be having an early dinner at my cousin's house and then we'll head back to have our own Thanksgiving meal.
We'll do Thanksgiving at my Mom's and I'm always in charge of the casseroles. This year I'm making squash casserole and corn casserole. Easy enough. On Friday, we'll do it all over again with the dh's family. I'll take a dessert of sorts. Still undecided...
You clean house for us? I gave up cleaning for you people a while ago...
Since my b-day is Thurs, I'm on strike, refusing to spend my day in the kitchen cooking. Luckily, I found a great restaurant who will do a take-out for us :-)
I don't really know what I'm doing. DB might be working. We're going to his parent's house to celebrate officially on Saturday. My mom called to ask if I was coming on Thursday and I felt weird being lukewarm about the idea. I couldn't tell her yes or no. I feel bad but I'm just not sure. I'd already sort of resolved myself to making a small dinner just for he and I before he went to work and just sitting around reading one of the Twilight books. Yes, again.
I'm not much in the holiday spirit this year.
As usual, the family (around 30, depending on girlfriends and out of towners) will be here. I don't do all the cooking (because if that was required I'd find a reason to take a vacation every November) but enough. Turkey, extra turkey breasts, peas and asparagus casserole, a family favorite dessert elegantly named blueberry stuff, a weight watchers friendly spice cake, a chocolate dessert as yet undecided, rolls and gravy. Getting the house ready usually takes me days. If I was one of those people who's always prepared for company it would be another matter. But I'm not. It's always fun. And I usually nap a lot on the friday where everyone else is out shopping. :-)
LJ
We're going to my parent's house. Zilla, the girls and I will probably get up, get ready and shuffle over there sometime mid-morning. We'll snack on junk, watch football and then eat dinner around 4 or 5. Very relaxing. My contribution is going to be the junk we eat before dinner's even done. :-)
At some point in there the women will have a strategy meeting for Friday morning shopping - a 4 AM wake-up call is usually required.
Instigator
Ah, the joys of being an old fart! I don't even think about cooking and I have a house cleaner come in every 2 weeks to clean my house.
My #2 daughter and SIL and my dear Yankee Friend and I are going to have Thanksgiving dinner at 5 PM at the church we attend. All I have to cook is a side dish of some sort (I think it will be a sweet potato casserole). The church will provide the turkey and beverages and others who attend will bring the side dishes and desserts.
No cleaning, no cooking, no left-overs, no clean-up afterwards --
and I will be having dinner with about 50 or more friends and family!
Nice arrangement!
I travel to my sister's in Hoover, AL. I'm making a red velvet cake tonight to take with me tomorrow. I also will make a rum cake on Wednesday for Thursday dinner. My sister and I cook everything but the turkey(her husband) and dressing(my dad). I'm pretty excited to get there. I haven't seen my nieces in over 3 months and my sister and I get to spend Friday alone.
We're going to the in-laws. I don't have to do any cooking, which sort of worries me. I like to cook fresh things; my MIL buys canned and packaged. She mentioned green bean casserole. I am NOT a fan of that stuff. :(
My parents were going to go with us, but my dad is now on a 50 mile travel restriction because he hurt his back. So they had to cancel.
Now, it's me and the hubby and a 9 hour drive. Gonna be interesting....
Liza, we'll be making a red velvet cake too!!! My Mom makes it special for me without the pecans. My favorite kind of cake.
Well, I dusted everything that would sit still yesterday and cleaned glass stuff. Today I've already been scrubbing carpet and I have bathrooms to clean. Not fun, since I'm having problems with my foot hurting today, but I'll get it done in between writing and working.
Lynn, I do not envy you that drive. Sounds like a good time to get some writing done, though.
On top of my Mom's family being here, my sister and her family will join us on Wednesday for baking and Thursday for Thanksgiving. The kids will probably spend the night too (bringing the total children in my house to 6) which should be interesting. I wonder how long I can lock myself in my room. :)
Angel
Well, if you reach your limit, call me. You can come sit on my couch and decompress if you need to. I'll be around. Probably. Doing something... who knows what?
Sounds liked everyone is going to have a great Thanksgiving. Enjoy your family, Angel!
Thursday is #3's 19th birthday too, PC. :)
We'll be driving 13 hours to reach #1, his wife and our two grandsons for Thanksgiving. It'll be great fun even though we have to leave #2 at home. She has to work after Thanksgiving sales. (Retail!)
#2 has been promoted. She's in charge of 2/3rds of the upper floor in Dillard's now. Back to fashion where she belongs. Yay!
Have a great Thanksgiving holiday!!
word verif. * datripp (LOL!)
It's going to be a blah Thanksgiving for me and my girls. There dad didn't want them to visit for the holidays and its doubtful he'll want them at Christmas. At least he has to pay chld support on them. I'll be very surprised if he even gets them a gift. I'm guessing he's spending all his money on the little tramp he ran away with.
I guess I should be thankful I found out about her. It made the divorce much easier when adultery was brought into the picture.
You sound like me I have been cleaning for the past week. My family is coming here this next weekend and I am cooking dinner. There were a lot of things I let go during the summer and I am trying to clean them up now.
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