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I braved the crowds today at the grocery store.  The day before Thanksgiving has to be the absolute worst time EVER to grocery shop, but there I was--with both children no less.  And I knew better too.  I had already done the bulk of my shopping last Friday in anticipation of the craziness.  Yes, I like to plan way in advance when it comes to avoiding chaos.  I have plenty in my life and have no desire to create more.  So last week, I wrote out my Thanksgiving menu and did all of my shopping for the following: 

Our Thanksgiving Menu
turkey
apricot-cranberry sauce
bacon-wrapped green beans
broccoli, rice, & cheese casserole
buttermilk mashed potatoes and gravy
rolls
pumpkin pie  

But I had no choice.  We had to go there today to pick up our pre-ordered turkey.  And apparently, so was everyone else in town.  Whole Foods even had a free valet service for parking your car.  The funny thing though, no one was using it.  Guess it just seemed to strange to valet just for groceries.

Once we returned home with our turkey, I was ready to start the first phase of my cooking.  Due to the fact that I am the ONLY one contributing to this meal, I didn't want to spend all day in the kitchen tomorrow.  I like the idea of sitting down with my boys tomorrow morning to watch the parade, eat cinnamon rolls, and drink hot spiced tea (my great-grandmother's recipe and a family holiday tradition.)  

So, this afternoon I got to work.  I figured that I could make the broccoli casserole today so that all I'll have to do is pop it in the oven tomorrow.  I could also make the pumpkin pie and the apricot-cranberry sauce.  Then tomorrow all I'd have to do were the mashed potatoes, the green beans, and of course the turkey.  Sounded like a solid plan to me.  That was until I tried to fit all of it in my refrigerator.

I have an average sized, side-by-side refrigerator that is already filled with all of the "regular" food that we eat every day.  When I shopped for our Thanksgiving dinner I also shopped for the rest of the weekend and into next week, leaving no extra room for casserole dishes and pie plates.

I managed to make enough room for the casserole dish, but there was no room left for the pie or the cranberry sauce.  The whole thing made me wonder how my mother does it every year.  She doesn't have a large fridge (or even an extra fridge in the garage) and somehow manages to feed twenty people, getting it all done at the same time without any problems.  Of course, she's been doing this whole cooking on Thanksgiving Day thing for a while now and has her timing down to a fine art.  My timing is already off and it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

Guess that's the good thing about cooking your first Thanksgiving for just your husband and kids.  They are not going to care if the potatoes are luke warm or if the gravy is slightly lumpy.  They're just going to be happy to be fed and will tell me that it's great even if it isn't.

And for this, I am thankful.