Battle stations

Along with J.'s two sisters who live in the area, we have the hosting for the holidays divided up between us. Our holiday is Thanksgiving. Assuming my counting is correct, we will be 30 people for dinner on Thursday. In the Big Ugly House, this would have been nothing given the size of the rooms and the size of the kitchen. Here, it is doable, it just takes a little more creativity and planning. 

So tomorrow begins the preparations and everyone will be on call for working. G. has already baked six dozen rolls, and tomorrow another three dozen are on the docket. We'll also be making some of the dishes that can be made ahead and reheated to make room in the kitchen and oven for other things on Thursday. And other people are bringing things, so we're not cooking the entire meal ourselves.

But really what I'll be spending much of my day on is moving furniture around and figuring out how to make the seating work. In my head it all works fine, but experience tells me that something working in my head is not a reliable indicator of how things work in actuality. I think I may have to fuss with some tablecloths as well. 

The good news is that I am now at a place in preparations for the holiday market that I can take the next two days off without panicking. This is a very good thing for a variety of reasons. 

We never vary our Thanksgiving menu. Its just so much easier to not reinvent the wheel every year, and there would probably be mass revolt if we tried. Here is our traditional menu:

Turkey (we're cooking three because we like leftovers)

Tofurky

Stuffing (both vegetarian and traditional)

Gravy 

Creamed onions

Roasted Brussels sprouts 

Mashed potatoes 

Cranberry-orange relish

Cranberry jelly 

Homemade crescent rolls 

Pies (many pies, many different pies)