We are kicking things off with a handy list of tips and tricks to help things go smoothly on the big day. Most of these tips were provided by you. Whether you are hosting the big day or bringing a side to someone else's house we have you covered.
Our Top 10 for Surviving the Big Day:
1. If you can't Make it, Fake it!
There is nothing wrong with store bought if it comes down to it ;) But if you do store bought present it nicely and add your own twist to it! Did you buy the pie? Take it off the box put it on a nice platter, preslice it! If you bought your turkey add some fresh herbs to it.. Fake it! no one will know! :)
Tanya E. of 3 Moms
San Diego, CA
2.Bring Snacks!
Especially if you have little ones and are going to someone else's house. Snacks will (hopefully) save you from the inevitable meltdowns that will come when your little ones decide they are hungry but its not yet time to eat.
Christy R, of 3 Moms
The Sticks, MO
3. Keep things "Low Key"
Keep it low maintenance! Who wants to spend the entire day slaving away in the kitchen, well unless you are avoiding certain relatives. ;o)
Jessica K. of 3 Moms
NOLA
4. Have a separate but fun kiddie table
4. Have a separate but fun kiddie table
When I have Thanksgiving at my house, I have a separate table for the kids. I cover the table with butcher paper and put out crayons, stickers, markers,etc.
When the kids arrive, they go straight to their tables and start decorating. Keeps the kids busy so the mommas can finish up dinner.
Jessica S.
Independence, MO
When the kids arrive, they go straight to their tables and start decorating. Keeps the kids busy so the mommas can finish up dinner.
Jessica S.
Independence, MO
5. Make room ahead of time
Clean out the refrigerator the weekend before, getting shelf space ready, and make sure to have storage containers on hand. This helps with the do-ahead preparation as well as clearing afterwards.
SuzyQCPA
Hayden
6. Buy the turkey already cooked and focus on delicious sides
My tips for Thanksgiving are to buy a cooked Turkey from your grocery store so that you have the ability to cook the side dishes in your oven. Even then you can only fit so much in your oven so I assign a few of the sides to some of my relatives.
Beau
7. Make and Prep things ahead of time
Make & prep as much as possible the night before. Like bake pies, cut up veggies, peel potatoes, set the table.
Kimberly S
Kimberly S
8. Enjoy the day and make it fun for the kids too
I have always loved cooking on Thanksgiving. Now with three kids its more challenging to keep them busy so I can finish everything. Now every year I cover the kids table with a plain paper table cloth and lots of holiday foam stickers. They make designs for they're place setting and when they're finished I pull out their very own cooking project ( I buy a bunch of the pilsbury biscuits) and pull out the cookie cutters. The kids love making them into shapes and they don't take long to bake so we always have kid inspired biscuits with our dinner and they're really cheap so you can get a ton for under 5 dollars.
Jennifer
9. When traveling out of town pack goody bags for the kids
We go out of town so I pack a bag for Lindsey with toys, books, coloring books, and snacks for the trip to the farm. Its makes the trip easier on her and the parents. :) Also she has toys she can play with too and she's not bored and being fussy all day.
Theresa L.
MO
10. Have things ready to package those leftovers
Get some sturdy to go type containers (like take and toss) in several sizes before Thanksgiving. Then after dinner is over everyone can take he leftovers and not have to worry about spillage in the car on the way home....
Christy K.
I want to thank all of you who participated in this, I think we ended up with a great and very helpful list of things to do. Now, on to what most of you are waiting for, the big winner of our contest.
First I want to briefly cover how this was decided. I just assigned a number to everyone based on when you commented starting with the blog first. This covered if you commented with a tip as well as if you commented that you shared our Blog/FB Page with your friends. There were 7 comments total on the blog so these people were numbers 1 through 7. Then I went to the FB page, there were no comments left from anyone saying "so and so sent me here" so I moved on to any tips left there and went in order of the time they were submitted giving any earlier comments the lower numbers and going up from there. This was easy because there were only 2 total. Then I went to random.org and it randomly generated a number between 1 and 9. I took a picture so there would be no confusion and you would all know that this was done fairly.
*Please note this has NOTHING to do with the order the tips were written in this blog, I placed them in an order that I thought flowed best with the big day. So the "numbers" listed here are not the numbers used for the drawing as (obviously) the moms of 3 Moms are not eligible to win this contest yet there is a tip form each of us.
And the winner is..............
#2, Jessica S. She is the second comment listed on the blog and was given #2
Jessica, please contact us at cookinmamas@yahoo.com with your contact info and the magazine you would like a 1 yr subscription to.
You have 24 hrs to respond to us, if we have not heard anything by then a different winner will be chosen.
You have 24 hrs to respond to us, if we have not heard anything by then a different winner will be chosen.
Thank you to everyone who participated in our first contest. We hope to have more contests soon and we hope more of you will choose to participate.
Love,
3 Moms: Jessica, Tanya and Christy
