Getting ready for the holidays!

Man, I'm sooo excited & a little freaked that the holidays are upon us (again...how did they sneak up so quickly?!). Excited because it's my FAVORITE time of year - food, family, friends, fun, parties & gifts (I know the holidays are not about 'em, but who doesn't love gifts?!)! I actually don't even have a list - or even an idea - of what I really want for Christmas, but I love seeing what people come up with! And I'm also freaked because I feel like I have so much to do & so little time to do it.

So, being the Type A person that I am, I need to be extremely organized & have a plan for the holiday season that is upon us, especially since The Dennifers will be hosting our first ever Thanksgiving as a married couple at our house! Enter the three gnenius women who have been sent here to save me from the holiday craziness that the holidays can become: Molly over at My Happy House, Kristen over at The Working Woman's Guide to Domestic Success & Carrie over at A Life in Progress came up with the perfect holiday challenge for me all of their readers!

It's a 5 week challenge starting this week (Thanksgiving Prep). This week I am working from Carrie's list & her's actually starts 2 weeks prior to Thanksgiving. Thankfully, I kinda subconsciously started doing some of the stuff I needed to get done on the 2 weeks prior list already! So, here is the list of everything I need to do in the next week or so to prepare for Thanksgiving - I deleted the stuff that does not apply to my gathering (completed items crossed out, comments in ORANGE):

2 Weeks Prior:

• Do a mock table setting: This allows you to see how many place settings you have, what you are missing, and if you have enough serving pieces. What linens will you be using? Do those napkins need ironing? Do you need to call Mom for another deep serving bowl?
• Create your menu: What are you, as the hostess, in charge of? What are your guests bringing? Be sure to ask your guests as they RSVP if their dish will need to be heated up or if you will need to provide serving dishes for their food. Still waiting on the hubbs to contact his family & finalize everything they will be contributing to the dinner...I have tasked him with finding out this information no later than TODAY so that I can tackle the rest of the menu.
  
• Also be sure that you have everything you need to prepare your food, not just serve it. Do you have enough cookware or will you need to purchase or borrow something else? Best to make sure of this now than be caught unawares during the week of the holiday!
• Make your grocery list: Using your menu, write down everything you will need. Be sure to check your cabinets in case you have some supplies already in there!
• Clip coupons to use on your holiday food items you will be purchasing next week.
  

One Week Before:

• Head to the grocery store and purchase anything that NEED NOT be fresh. For example, I will be needing baguettes and won't want to purchase that in advance, but instead the day before our gathering. I normally do my grocery shopping on Saturday, so I will head to the store armed with my list and coupons!
• Are your guests taking home leftovers? What are they bringing them home in? It is a great idea to provide some sort of box for them to put all the yummies you are sending them home with in to! Hmmm, most of our guests will be coming from about 4 hours away, although they may be staying in the area thru Black Friday, soooo I'm not sure what we are doing about left overs. I think that we will most likely have them over the day after Thanksgiving for the leftovers.

At the end of this week, I will re-post this list with *hopefully* everything marked off, along with what needs to be done next week.

Am I crazy because in the midst of all this I have both a candle party to throw this Saturday & the completion of the master bath project? I also have a few DIY Christmas projects lined up to decorate the house, but those will most likely wait until the day after Thanksgiving. Maybe I am, but I like to aim high. What do you have planned for this week? What are your Thanksgiving plans? How about Black Friday?! Wish me luck this week!