Are you cooking Thankgiving dinner this week? If yes, have you started already? If your answer is no, then I likely just made you feel a little stressed out and a bit overwhelmed. I know, I know some of you superwomen are shaking your heads no and saying no problem, I’ve got it covered. Well, if that’s the case, you’ve got a lot on me. I’m willing to bet, many of you are dreading the cooking exercise.

I love cooking a huge Thanksgiving dinner and having a large group at my house. The more the merrier. In my opionion, the key to avoiding overwhelm is all in the planning. Yes, at Thanksgiving and in life. It’s just like any other large project you need to manage. Look at your goal and then plan backward from the deadline. Outline the critical path activities and go from there. How am I doing? Am I taking all the fun and sexiness out of your Thanksgiving day experience? Maybe it sounds that way but for me, I’ve found that proper planning is the key to my enjoyment factor. If I am able to take the guess work out of my Thanksgiving cooking schedule (and my life scheduling), then I can spend my time enjoying the process and the day.

Here’s my tip for what you should do this week with your Thanksgiving planning:

Monday

• Plan Food Menu
• Plan Beverage Menu
• Plan Thursday Morning Breakfast and Snack Schedule (Avoid Hungry Grumpies within your Tribe)
• Gather all Recipes
• Do all shopping in advance (Hopefully, some of you did this last week to avoid crowds)
• Assemble Serving Dishes, Glasses, Plates and Table Necessities (Silverware, Centerpieces, Candles, etc)
• Make Assignments for your spouse (align these with his/her talents and affinities)
• Make spouse feel like it takes someone with the skills of a King, Queen or Knight to accomplish the task you are asking them to help with
• Make sure you have your favorite Tea, Coffee, Wine or Cocktail on Hand and Imbibe freely (but wisely) during your cooking fun this week

Tuesday

• Prechop everything you can (Onions, Celery, Carrots, Breads)
• Planned and Prepare Kids Foods (As Possible e.g. precook pasta, etc)
• Cookand bake in advance (Cranberry sauce, boil sweet potatoes, moir poix, pies, cakes, jello molds, relishes)
• Put time in your day for something relaxing (meditation, bath, 10 minutes of reading your favorite book or magazing, a quiet walk down your street to get your barrings). This is huge in the success of keeping your sanity and keeping you on track this week.

Wednesday

• I prefer Fresh Turkeys BUT….
• If your bird is Frozen, make sure you thaw the bird if it’s frozen. IT TAKES A LONG TIME.
• Put everything in dishes that you can (relishes, condiments, pickles, jellies, salt, pepper, etc)
• Continue advance prep for recipes
• Select table linens
• Set the table
• More time for you to relax
• Do something fun with your family.
• Buy fresh flowers (or best, ask hubby to….)
• Revisit your lists. Evaluate whether a trip to the store is necessary.

Thursday

• I’m a member of the Cook the Turkey in a Turkey Bag Crowd. It’s easy and awesome and the bird is juicy and full proof.
• Cook the bird according to the Birds directions.
• Ready beverages
• Finish cooking what must be done today
• ENJOY!

Ok, so what about those of you who have no idea where to even start?  My advice is to go to a site like http://allrecipes.com/ which has easy to follow recipes and avoid some of the more mature sites like http://www.epicurious.com/ and http://www.foodnetwork.com/.  Although, these sites are among my top favorites, they can be intimidating for beginners.  Other great sites like http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/Pages/home.aspx have great recipes for beginners too.  Good luck!

So, in closing, why do I think Avoiding Overwhelm at Thanksgiving is just like avoiding it in life?  Here you go:

• You have take care of yourself first to avoid overwhelm
• You have to plan, plan, plan
• You have to expect that something is going to go wrong and that’s just part of both.  No big deal.  Readjust, move forward and enjoy the adventure.
• Someone WILL say something you don’t like and someone will make someone else uncomfortable.  You’ll have to help, you won’t want to but it’s all part of your journey.