Thanksgiving, Part I

I am hosting Thanksgiving for my in-laws this year so the pressure for it to be perfect is high. Not only is this my first time hosting any holiday, but its also my daughter's first ever Thanksgiving. My in-laws can cook, they eat with real dishes, they use real utensils and glasses, and they're used to perfect Donna Reed dinners and decor. My mother-in-law makes her own floral arrangements, makes Cinnabons and pies from scratch, makes clothes and can clean like someone with severe OCD! This woman does it all, how I am supposed to keep up with that?!

She's very particular and opinionated so the idea that my novice cooking skills (or lack thereof) will be put to the test this Thanksgiving is more than intimidating. I make box cake, I buy pre-made floral arrangements and I eat on the couch off paper plates. How ever will I survive??

I took all that nervousness and decided that I needed a plan. I'm the type of person who loves lists, organization, planning and efficiency. You could say I'm cursed as a perfectionist. So my planning commenced. I scoured the Internet looking for recipes that weren't too hard, had ingredients I recognized and that felt manageable. After hours (literally hours, three of them) of scouring I picked my menu. I then proceeded to make an Excel spreadsheet listing each part of the meal and the ingredients needed. I know what you're thinking and you're right.  I then sorted this into things I could make the day before and things that must be made the day of. THEN, I made another spreadsheet that took the like ingredients from each recipe and grouped them together so I know how much to buy of each thing. I'm nuts, I know, but it made me feel better.

You thought I was kidding, didn't you?  :)

Next it was time to plan the decorations. I looked at tons of pictures of tablescapes (thanks Sandra Lee for the technical term) only to feel overwhelmed. Do I want a rustic, warm colored decor, or do I want white, gold simple decor? Flowers or pumpkins and gourds as the centerpieces? Spray painting pears to use as place cards - overkill? too much work?

I love decorating and in all my excitement I knew I was getting carried away. I talked with my husband about all this pressure (for which he reminded me I'm the only one putting pressure on myself) and how I wanted it to be perfect. And then I asked how much he'd be comfortable with me spending on decor and he luckily had the same amount in mind that I did.

The next day I packed myself and the baby up and went to everyone's favorite place, Target. I expected to find a ton of Thanksgiving/Fall decorations but they had n-o-t-h-i-n-g. Target was full of Halloween and Christmas decorations, yes that's right I said Christmas. It's October! I don't know, I thought the Pilgrims starting America was kind of important, worthy of at least one aisle of decorations. I was even willing to settle for cheesy tchotchkes like wooden pilgrim couples or ceramic turkeys but even those were MIA. I couldn't even find a wreath. I wound up with a fall-ish table runner with matching placemats and napkins.

I have more work to do, this was just a preliminary test for looks 

I returned home feeling defeated but determined to scrounge something up for the decor. This weekend will be my menu test run, pray for me! I'll write about how it goes next week - maybe during the Frankenstorm!

What are you making this Thanksgiving? Share some of your best tips for impressing the in-laws (recipes, decor ideas, fun things to do, etc). How do you decorate for Thanksgiving?