What?! Thanksgiving is just a week away! How in the world the time flies faster at this time of year, I will never know; but I often feel like I am in a pinball machine of holidays and events and parties this time of year. Getting it all done and still having the energy to enjoy the special times can feel overwhelming. And to be honest with you, I struggle with deciding what is important and what is extraneous (read: unnecessary). I also find I can get so busy doing, that I look up and suddenly the event is here and I am unprepared.
I sat down and thought about how I would like to do Thanksgiving this year. I thought about the things I wanted my daughters to see as important to the day. I want them to look back on Thanksgiving not as a day of stress and frustration, but a day of fun, silliness, and some serious devotion to eating and being thankful! I want them to have a sense that Thanksgiving is something special without being fussy.
With this vision in mind, I started cutting away the things that just didn’t fit. The things that would be nice, but wouldn’t contribute to a day of simplicity and ease I was looking for are just not going to get done this year! And I got down to the bare bones of what needed to be done in order to achieve my perfect Thanksgiving Day. Then I put the things I wanted to do into categories and separated them out into daily tasks.
I figure if God created the entire world in 6 days, I can plan a feast and create the Thanksgiving celebration I imagine in the same amount of time. And since He was pretty orderly in his creative process, I thought it would be good for me to be orderly in my planning process. So, I created categories for the tasks I need to do: Food, Fresh (clean), and Fun (activities and decorations).
I decided I had the time in my schedule to get three tasks done each day, one for each category. So I printed out this simple calendar and allotted a task to each category for each day.
Here are some of the things I include for each category:
Food: Menu Planning, Grocery Shopping, Make-Ahead dishes, Prepping Ingredients, Desserts
Fresh: clean bathrooms, clean kitchen, prepare table linens, plan which dishes to use, vacuum/sweep & dust
Fun: kid’s crafts, kid’s coloring pages, holiday movie watching, table-setting with kids the night before, counting blessings
In preparing for this event, I am trying to avoid adding crazy projects to my days. I am focusing on keeping it simple so I can truly spend the time being thankful for the blessings God has generously bestowed on me and my family. I hope this printable Planner for Family Feasts helps you to plan for your Thanksgiving feast this year, and future feasts, too! If you are looking for a black and white printer-friendly version of the Family Feast Planner, please click this link.
Blessings to you and your family as you celebrate!
