Thanksgiving is only one week away!

If you haven’t finalized your menu, today is the day. Also, schedule your shopping.  If at all possible, avoid grocery stores between 8 and 8 on Saturday and Sunday. When I stand in lines that long, I expect a roller coaster to be at the end and I don't like playing bumper cars with grocery carts.  Shopping off hours (even in the middle of the night) means no lines, but the shelves may not be well stocked. If you have a 24-hour store, think about shopping at 5 or 6 am on Saturday or Sunday.  They’ll likely have restocked overnight for the big day, but most folks will still be in bed.

If you aren’t using your dining room this weekend, set the table now.  One less thing to worry about next week. You can also set up the bar and place serving dishes on the table or sideboard so that you know everything is in place.

Take your turkey out of the freezer now and store it in the fridge to defrost slowly.  You don’t want to face a still-frozen turkey on Thursday morning.

Make sure you’ve decided on menus for Wednesday and Friday. Planning what you’ll need makes life less stressful and prevents the last minute dash to the grocery store. Even better: if you’ll have guests who want to help, assign them Wednesday dinner and Friday breakfast and lunch to give yourself a break.

Beginning next week, it’s all about the cooking.  So the goal this weekend is to handle everything else.