Are you feeling overwhelmed from the thought alone of organizing a successful thanksgiving dinner?
You do not have to feel that way.
It can be overwhelming when you consider the many things you need to put in place and the pressure of making sure it is perfect.
Give yourself some grace the people who you love are there to spend time with you, just as you are
There are many expectations you have for that day, one of which is you want to have all the dishes ready on time, the house well organized for the guest, the kid being of best behaviors, having enough silverware, drinks and the most tasking cleaning up after the celebration, just to mention but a few.
It is possible to have a successful, happy, and drama-free Thanksgiving celebration, it will include both physical and mental preparation. Here are some ways:
- Do not treat thanksgiving and any other holiday as an emergency. You need to sit back and make a proper plan to avoid pressure and overwhelm.
- Have a purpose for your thanksgiving celebration. What do you want everyone who comes along to leave with, joy, and thankfulness of heart or anger and regret they came. When the purpose is not known abuse is inevitable -Myles Munroe. So you being able to define the purpose in your mind will help you guide the way the celebration go
- Have self-talk with yourself before the actual day, this conversation will include you saying to yourself “ I am not under any obligation to be stressed out, I will put in my best to make this celebration great but not at the expense of my peace and sanity”.
- Have a checklist that will guide you on all your plans. Your checklist should include your grocery shopping, preparing the guestrooms, meal preparation, cleaning after dinner.
- Delegate responsibilities to other members of the household. You cannot do everything on your own.
- Do not forget to clean the bedrooms. If you are expecting guests, launder the guest bedsheets and towels to have them smell fresh. Do not forget to clean the bathrooms.
- Check out your cookware and gadgets and ensure you have enough. Do you have enough saucepans? Baking pans? Casserole dishes? Pots?
- Decide your thanksgiving dishes and keep them simplified, for your side prepare those you can freeze now, this will give you some more time as you can prepare those a few days before thanksgiving.
- Take time out now to wash your fancy serving dishes, it is one less chore to do out of your checklist.
Finally, the thanksgiving dinner must bring the family close together, while they think and enumerate the things they are thankful for and share beautiful moments, but it is important to point out that there may arise frictions and misunderstandings.
For that reason, as the homemaker chose the path of peace, forgive everyone in advance, so anyone who may offend you will not ruin your joy.
I know it is a few days before Thanksgiving, but you can decide to make this one more organized and exciting than last year by following the suggested steps above.
And let your thanksgiving celebration not end without everyone identifying at least one thing that they are thankful for. This is the purpose of thanksgiving, the dishes and other fun stuff we do are only the icing on the cake.