Thanksgiving is two weeks from today. That means that preparations move into high gear.

• If you are traveling for the holiday and plan to anything except drive: good luck finding a ticket at a reasonable price. You may need to be very flexible about your travel times. If you are in this situation, make a note for next August/September so it doesn’t happen again.

• If you are hosting, all your lists need to be in place: shopping list, task list and schedule, menu, guest list, etc. (But last minute guests are always welcome!)

• Do as much of the big cleaning and de-cluttering as possible. The less stuff in your way, the easier it is to navigate the holidays.

• Iron table linens and polish silver as needed.

• Make sure your fridge is clean and you know where the leftover containers are.

• If you have houseguests, set the guest room now. Also, plan the other meals for their stay.  After cooking a big meal on Thursday, you won’t want to  have to come up with ideas and shop for ingredients on Friday.

• Grocery shop for all of your non-perishables this weekend. For perishables, plan to do your grocery shopping at an off-hour.  Nothing good can come from trying to shop the Saturday before Thanksgiving – unless it’s at 2 am.