I love Thanksgiving! It is the perfect kickoff to the upcoming holiday season!

However, unlike most people, I am the least stressed when it comes to thanksgiving dinner. Why you ask? It’s because I am a planner 🙂

I try to keep it super simple so it gives everyone more time to socialize!

Let me run you through a few things I do when I am prepping thanksgiving dinner for 2 or for 6!

• The first thing I do is make a meal plan. This makes life so much easier when it comes to grocery shopping! Once I have my menu set out, I will make my grocery list. A simple tip to keep in mind is to stick to the basics. This is not the time to try out fancy recipes (unless you want to!)

My menu usually includes a protein (turkey, beef, chicken whatever!), some vegetable sides (salad, yams, potatoes, carrots, beans etc etc) and a nibbler. A nibbler could be something as simple as some fresh bread, buns or a fruit and cheese platter. See how easy that is?

The photo above was from last year! We had gotten through most of the meal before I remembered to take a photo!

This year it was just me and my husband. So we did a beef roast and mini potatoes in the slow cooker and had it with some steamed vegetables. It was delicious

•   Another thing that helps with keeping entertaining stress free is to pull out all your serving dishes, plates, cutlery, glasses etc the night before. Wash, dry and set it all out on your table. This way, you are not running around looking for a steak knife at the very last minute!

I find a buffet style is so much more easier than doing individual place settings and gives it a more casual and homey feel.

• Drinks and dessert – No meal is complete without them! One of my favourite items is a large dispenser as shown below. I like to fill it up with juice, water and add fresh fruit to it. You can set your glasses next to it so your guests can help themselves. For those who prefer a boozy drink, set up some shooters next to the dispenser so that they can add it to their fruit cocktail! Same goes for dessert.

If you are anything like my family, once the meal is all done and everyone has filled their bellies with all the deliciousness that was offered, it is time to relax! Have a board game or some sort of after dinner activity ready.  We usually play dice and it is a lot of fun! This is a great time to chat and just be thankful to be around people that you love.

So there it is.  You have just hosted a stress free thanksgiving dinner! Congrats!

For me, this is one of the few times in the year that I actually run my dishwasher lol. So once all the guests leave, I start cleaning and tiding up. I cannot rest until my home returns to it’s previous state! So once all the dishes are done and the place is tidied up, I make myself a cup of tea, put my feet up and chill!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Here is Kitty with some of her Thanksgiving treats!