Thanksgiving Centerpiece Ideas: Poppies and Posies
Design*Sponge
If you are looking for a beautiful DIY autumn centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table, check out this step-by-step guide and prepare to wow your guests.

Consider This! A Multi-Course Plated Thanksgiving Dinner
The Kitchn
“Sure, it’s traditional to pass huge platters around the table in one merry food frenzy at Thanksgiving. And, yes, we’ll be busy enough just getting all the food prepared, so why throw in the extra step of multiple courses and plating food individually? We’ll give you two big reasons why we’re thinking about doing this.”

Thanksgiving Specials Across the U.S.
Open Table
If you’d like to be giving thanks for not having to cook, check out Open Table’s guide for where to eat on Thanksgiving Day.

101 Head Starts on the Day
New York Times
“For cooks, most Thanksgiving problems are brought about by the sheer number of dishes competing for the stove: It’s not easy to roast a turkey and sweet potatoes for 20 at the same time. The best solution is to make food in advance, like one of the dishes that follow.”

It’s Thanksgiving; We’re Doomed
City Room Blog (New York Times)
If you feel like Turkey Day might make you crazy, you’ll like these Thanksgiving stories from psychiatrists. Don’t forget to check out the numerous comments for tales of Thanksgiving disasters, which might make you give thanks for a relatively normal celebration.

It’s hard to believe, especially with the unseasonably warm weather in much of the country, that Thanksgiving is almost upon us. For most people, the Turkey Day feasting and festivities aren’t a last-minute impromptu deal. There are traditions to be upheld, food to be made and occasionally even some family holiday squabbling to be soothed. So you’d better be organized!

Better Homes and Gardens has a great Thanksgiving countdown checklist. It’s pretty exhaustive, but here are a few of MLuxe’s favorite tips:

• Don’t forget to order your turkey, especially if you are getting a special bird.
• Make sure you have enough in the way of plates, cups, silverware, etc. Don’t have enough place settings of your fine china? Use the everyday stuff for the kids, or ask your guests to bring some of their china. It will look eclectic and chic!
• Think of something — anything — to keep the kiddos occupied. If it’s warm enough, how about touch football or Capture the Flag? If it’s an indoor day, make sure you have some good board games and DVDs around.
• Set the table the night before — it will take some stress off your day-of preparations.
• Lastly, don’t forget to defrost the turkey with time to spare!

What are your favorite Thanksgiving preparation tips? Does your family have any special traditions? Let us know in the comments!

Photo courtesy of tuchodi on Flickr

Merry Christmas from all of us here at MLuxe! We’ll be back with our regularly scheduled posting on Monday. Until then, enjoy some Christmas cheer via It’s A Wonderful Life.

Christmas traditions are numerous and varied: trimming the tree, singing carols and waiting for Santa to come. For many people, one of the most treasured and passed-down traditions are Christmas cookies. Christmas is only a few days away, but it is easy to whip up a few batches of your favorite seasonal treats.

Epicurious offers 25 recipes for Christmas cookies–plenty to choose from!

If you want to swap your delicious Christmas cookies, consider a cookie exchange. Better Home and Gardens has some helpful hints for a successful party:

• Don’t invite too many people — 8 to 12 is the right amount. Although you want to make sure there are lots of cookies to exchange, you don’t want your guests to have to make massive amounts of cookies.
• Make sure you know what sort of cookies everyone is bringing. You don’t want everyone to show up with peanut butter blossoms!
• As the host, you will need to provide beverages and maybe a few snacks–not too many, since you’ll be filling up on cookies!
• A cookie exchange is a great time to bring out all your fun holiday decorations and dishes.

Happy baking!

Image courtesy of  Key Lime Yummies Bakery on Flickr.

As the week careens into Thanksgiving, we were inspired and calmed by this article from the New York Times. The Thanksgiving feast is one of the highlights of the year, but it is difficult for the average home cook to put the turkey and side dishes on the table at the same time. One oven and four burners doesn’t go very far when you are roasting the turkey all day, boiling potatoes for mashed potatoes and cranberries for the cranberry sauce, steaming the green beans and baking the pumpkin pie. What’s a cook to do?

The best advice is to try and make as much stuff ahead of time as you can. The NYT has many great and easy recipes listed in this guide. Try them out and you’ll have plenty of time to get yourself ready and bask in your guests’ praise. Here’s a few of our favorite selections from “Things to Prepare Before the Turkey Goes in the Oven.”

• Cranberry-Orange Sauce
• Cranberry Polenta Cakes
• Zucchini Potato Pancakes
• Wild Rice Greek Salad
• Pears in Red Wine

Try some new recipes and get ready to relax and enjoy Thanksgiving!

Photo courtesy of bkwdayton on Flickr

The brilliant hues of fall arrive and the suddenly dark and chilly mornings mean that the holiday season will arrive sooner than you can say “thaw the turkey.” Anyone who has hosted a holiday gathering will tell you that without proper planning, what is supposed to be a joyous coming together of friends and family can turn into a social disaster.

As a host or hostess, not only are you inviting people into your home, but you’re also inviting the potential for stress into your life. To help you and your guests enjoy the holidays, we’ve compiled a list of tips and a couple of links to help keep the stress out your party and the joy in your seasons.

Take a look around the house

Are there any jobs or chores that need to be completed to get your home ready for the long, cold winter (assuming you live in a climate that suffers through long, cold winters)? Get them done sooner rather than later. Prepping your house for winter is pretty basic stuff: Check for gaps around windows and doors and seal them up, get your storm windows up, and get your furnace or boiler tuned up. All the good food in the world won’t offset the discomfort felt by your guests if your house isn’t ready for the season.

Start compiling a list (or two, or three)

Remember last year when Aunt Edna showed up with three long-lost cousins and you had just assumed she would be coming alone? Call around and start inviting people to get a feel of how many guests you’ll have. As you begin the process of making shopping lists you will, of course, need to know how many people you’ll have for the gathering. Planning a Thanksgiving dinner is a daunting task, so with that in mind we recommend you check out this article from Real Simple, which gives you comprehensive list of tasks and tricks to make the days leading up to the party go smoothly.

Shop early!

Once you have your guest list solidified, make your shopping list and make a trip to the store for items that might be hard to find as the party approaches. If you have a specific plan for Thanksgiving turkey preparation, be sure to order ahead of time to ensure the bird will be ready when you need it. And while you’re at it, why not make a call to your cleaning service and schedule a house cleaning before the gathering. If you haven’t used a service in the past, think of the hours spent cleaning your house to get ready for the event and decide whether or not you can put a price on that time. And remember, everyone else who uses the service will want their homes cleaned before the holiday, too, so don’t hesitate to get on their calendar now!

Craft a plan and accept a helping hand

Lay out a schedule for the week prior to the party and do your best to stick to it. Don’t wait until Thanksgiving Day to start cooking. Prepare as much as you can in advance and remember, if someone offers to help with the cooking, let them. Do you need to clean the dust off the wine glasses or polish the silver? Recruit your spouse and kids to help with the small tasks, right down to folding napkins, setting the table, and greeting guests. If you’re looking for a great primer on getting organized for the holiday, check out this article titled, fittingly, “How to Stay Sane on Turkey Day: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Thanksgiving.”

Remember whose kitchen it is!

Inevitably, party guests flock to the kitchen – it’s the center of the action, especially early in a gathering. If you’ve ever tried to get a big meal on the table, you know how hard it can be with people hovering over you. Recruit one or two “official” helpers and politely encourage everyone else to take the conversation away from the prep area. Let them know that they’re more than welcome to stick around, but if they do so they will be responsible for the cleanup after dinner. That should move them out quickly!

Get the food out, get the guests seated, and take a moment to relax

As your guests get settled and the food begins to get passed, take a deep breath and relax before heading to the table. The hard work is done and the time has arrived to enjoy your friends and family. You’ve earned (and created) a fantastic gathering and meal. Now about that cleanup…

Photo courtesy of CarbonNYC on Flickr