Thanksgiving Preparations

My husband and I invited our families over to see our new home for Thanksgiving. So it'll be the first time we're "entertaining" and I plan to go big. 25 guests, 4,000 blessed calories for each of them is my goal! Typtophan be damned. The best part is I get to do my favorite thing: PLAN!

So here's my Thanksgiving week plan:
Monday: grocery shopping, start thawing my bird (if frozen is the best I can find)
Tuesday: make the Acorn Squash Bisque, set the tables, assign seating, freeze raspberries and mint leaves in adorable fish-shaped ice cube trays from Ikea
Wednesday: start brining the bird, make the pumpkin layer cake, prepare bread and vegetables for stuffing, make the ginger-cranberry chutney, purchase and arrange flowers for center pieces, make fruity ice tea
Thursday: beer-braised brisket in my dutch oven by 9:00 a.m.; complete the stuffing and stuff my bird, place bird with roasting vegetables in the oven by 10:00 a.m., make Dutch Apple pie, make a vegetable (either artichoke heart casserole or cauliflower gratin of some sort), make buttermilk biscuits, heat the Bisque, find time to shower, greet arriving guests, collect the green bean casserole, jello mold, and mashed potatoes from my aunts and step-mother and arrange in serving dishes--lovely, uncork the wine, greet more guests, set up the buffet with my new chafing dishes, and serve the soup garnished with croutons and truffle oil, then wow them with my Thanksgiving extravaganza.
Thursday night- awake from food coma and clean up
Friday: recover, maybe make a Turkey/cranberry sandwich with leftovers, if I can stand to eat any more.

I love the holidays.