Thanksgiving Day Game Plan

This will be my first year preparing a traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner for my family as well as a few of our friends. I cook on a daily basis for my bunch without a major plan so I'm not completely useless in the kitchen. I've always been able to cover for the unexpected dinner guest with little problem but November 27th will be quite a different day. I know it will be hectic and stressful since Rick has to work most of the day leaving me to wrangle all the cooking and cleaning with the kids underfoot. This is why I'm putting together a game plan. In order for me to survive the Day of Thanks with my sanity in tact, I need to be prepared with an agenda.

I've got my menu list together and surprisingly almost all the ingredients I need are in the pantry already. This Sunday I'm off to the city to pick up what's left on my list. I'm sure to score some great grocery deals between the store's promotional sale and the Sunday circular. So here's what on the menu:

Roasted Turkey
Gravy
Creamed Potatoes
Crockpot Green Beans with bacon
Corn
Baked Macaroni n Cheese
Broccoli Casserole
Sweet Potato Casserole w/Marshmallows
Fresh Baked Rolls
Pecan Pie Bars or Chess Squares
Cheesecake
Heath Bar Cake (I may try to convert it to a cookie)

Trying to figure out the timing to get all this done in time for our afternoon dinner is going to be the tricky part. Thankfully I found this little nugget on allrecipes.com! It's got a great menu list for beginners and those of you that more experienced with the holiday cooking. The BEST part was the time line. It tells you when to put the frozen bird in the fridge, how early you can make the pies, to preparing the dinner rolls! Of course I plan to clean as I go so the dishwasher will be worn out by the end of the day! lol

The only thing for me to now is figure out how to keep the kids from destroying the house while I'm in the kitchen. Hopefully the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will distract them for a little while but there's also video games, coloring pages, and games. I'm also thinking about a little scavenger hunt when they start to get bored. If nothing else works, the oldest can bundle up and play outside while the youngest is mesmerized by Spongebob!

Despite the hectic cooking schedule, I'm looking forward to it all! Wish me luck!