Holiday Stress Part I of Many Parts

One of my many character flaws is that I am really easily stressed out over the most ridiculous things.  At this moment I'm dying over us hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas at our house.  I've never ever in my life hosted anything more than having a few people over with beer so this is quite overwhelming to me.  The part that initially threw me into a frenzy was that we don't have like any of what we need as far as stuff - platters, things to hold side dishes for that large of a group, we don't have enough serving spoons or even enough flatware, tablecloth, thank god the dining room table came, we need more chairs, a roasting pan for a turkey, a turkey baster, brining stuff, a butter dish, gravy boats, a fucking case of wine.  So it's fine, I made a list of what we need and went to Homegoods and got what I could and came back and we're still sort of in rough shape, but oh well, what can I do at this point.  The best part about my multiple Homegoods trips was how many strangers I talked to about the effing turkey platter.  I'd hold something up and ask the nearest woman over 40, "how big of a turkey do you think this would hold?", or "do you think this could hold a 20 pound turkey".  The women were all super nice, very helpful, and really gave it some thought.  This was all so much better than calling my mother in the middle of a store in a panic and trying to figure out dimensions.

The next challenge of course is the actual food - we ordered a turkey from a farm and it comes with stuffing and gravy which is awesome.  All we need to do is pick all that stuff up on Wednesday.  I made a list of all the dishes that we are making, and who is bringing what, and from that list made another shopping list of ingredients.  You'd think that this organization would make me feel better, but it doesn't.  Sometimes seeing a huge list on paper just makes things worse!

The very last part of this anxiety ridden fun is that it will also be Mia's first holiday party, or her first time with a lot of people over petting her and there will be strangers and children.  Hopefully she keeps her cool and doesn't scare anyone, and will be well enough behaved that we don't have to lock her up for the day.  We'll see how it all goes soon enough...