by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: November 10, 2009

Planning pays off in successful family activities where food, entertainment, and expense are concerned; Thanksgiving tops the list. When it is your turn to get the family together on this annual occasion which often is the only time most family members see each other, start planning ahead at least a couple of months. First your guest list. You will need to know how many mouths to feed before you can decide on the menu and what to buy.

Once this is learned you decide how you will seat them. Will it be a sit down dinner with card tables for the younger members or will it be buffet style. Your house and the availability of seating, space, etc., will answer that question. How formal or informal will this dinner be and what kinds of table cloths, napkins will you use. If you need to buy extra's or will you borrow from other members of your family.

Why buy if you will not be using the items again soon especially if your mother or family would be glad to let you borrow theirs. After all, the dinner is for them. Family dinners are cooperative ventures and items get shuffled back and forth. This is the reasonable way to fill in when you have needs. The best time to buy table cloths and household linens is in January or February when the sales starts.

Now that you know who will be there, and you have made preparations for the seating or the buffet style and have asked your family for loans of napkins, etc, you are ready to plan on the decorations. Easy does it here. If your table is long and a small centerpiece would get lost and a large one takes up too much room and is too costly, why not settle for small colorful fruit bowls all the way down the middle of the table. Bananas, oranges, red and green apples, and grapes will give color and will take care of decoration. And of course, they are edible. You will need all the room you can get on the table to hold the food.

Now the menu. This does not vary much from year to year since you know your family and what they like best. As always, each wants to get in with supplying the food and that's just fine with you. You contact each one and ask what they want to contribute among the choices you give them. You list all these and you fill in the list of what you will supply. You may need to kindly remind them about a week before of their offering so they won't forget.

Ideally, some member will supply the drinks, another the turkey, another a big pot of mashed potatoes, another a sweet potato casserole, another green beans or some other vegetable, and you will be left with the desserts. Or some other arrangement. It all depends on how cooperative your family is and who can afford to pitch in who cannot and how many cooks there are.

All should contribute to the meal and all should contribute to the cleanup. Exceptions here are honored guests such as the older members who deserve a break. Family members who are traveling from out of town are no exception. They take up space and eat food and they are to help. Most will understand and will contribute in some way.

There's nothing to preparing Thanksgiving dinner, not when you begin your plans early enough to give yourself enough time to carefully map out every detail. It is work, often is frustrating, but it can be fun. What else keeps children coming home for Thanksgiving if it is not the best deal around? If you are the mother and those coming are your children, then you are fortunate indeed. Yet, please, let them do most of the work and you do the planning and the supervising and having the most fun with the grandchildren.

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