T-Minus 3 days till T-Day & holiday shopping planning!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner & I am busy *attempting* to finish up the last of my Thanksgiving to do list. Last week I was using Carrie over at A Life in Progress' list; she and two other fab bloggers - Molly over at My Happy House, Kristen over at The Working Woman's Guide to Domestic Success - are running this awesome "Sunday's with Santa's Little Helpers" 5-week Challenge to get everyone ready for the holidays. This week they are focusing on gearing up for Christmas shopping. And, while I am following along with the challenge (see below), I have to veer off course a bit and focus mostly on Thanksgiving this week...at least until Thursday after everything is cooked & everyone is fed.

Here is my updated list of everything I still need to get done & with a run down of my plan for the next few days leading up to T-Day & the big day (my comments in ORANGE)! You are welcome to use it too if you think it'll help you be more organized.

Monday, 11/23/09:

• Purchase cook/serve ware needed to prepare the meal. I still need a veggie scrub brush, hand held measuring cups (good for non-liquid measuring), gravy boat & possibly some extra Tupperware. Planning to purchase all of this tonight.
  
• Purchase any items that were not purchased in this past weekend's grocery trip.The first store we went to was out of several items I need to cook with, so on to store #2 tonight.
• Write out cooking temps & time required for each dish to strategize on how/when to cook each item & in what order.
• Clean master bed & bath, vacuum upstairs bedrooms.
  

Tuesday, 11/24/09:

• Prepare cranberry sauce/relish; refrigerate.
  
• Clean guest bedroom, powder room, guest bathroom (in basement), basement. Main level cleaned & vacuumed this weekend!
  

Wednesday, 11/25/09:

• Make sweet potato pie; refrigerate.
• Make potato salad; refrigerate.
• Complete any left over cleaning that needs to be done.

Thursday, Turkey Day! 11/26/09:

• Hubbs picks up turkey @ 8:15am. Get up & get showered/dressed.
  
• Start prepping/cooking around 12:30pm: prep mac & cheese green bean casserole.
• Around 1pm - pop turkey in over to re-heat prior to serving. Possibly may be usining my friend's oven who lives across the street & who will be out of town for TG.
  
• Around 2pm - pop mac & cheese into oven (35 min); boil potatoes for mashed potatoes & prep yams.
• After about 10 min.of the mac & cheese cooking, lower heat to 350 degrees, then pop in green bean casserole & candied yams in for about 30 min. each.
  
• While those three dishes are cooking, prepare mashed potatoes & gravy (store bought with some additions).
• Have favorite sous chef (AKA - the hubbs) prepare champagne punch for adults & get kids cups filled with ice for soda.
  
• Serve meal & say prayer around 3:00pm-3:30pm. Eat & enjoy!
• Clean up as much as possible after eating.

Whew, now hopefully all goes according to plan! I will let you guys know after Thursday! Am I missing anything?!

Now, in keeping with the 5 week holiday challenge, here is what you should be doing to plan for the holidays this week (week 2): Create your [Christmas] LIST, BUDGET, and HOW MUCH YOU PLAN ON SPENDING PER PERSON! We need to do ALL of these things - the list is barely started!