Organize for Thanksgiving

A large meal is customary come Thanksgiving, which is only one week away.
Organize. Get ready and prepare ahead. Purchasing your groceries for your meal this week will be a great start for your Thanksgiving Day.
Prepare side dishes ahead of Thanksgiving day if possible, refrigerate, and heat up when you awake the morning of Thanksgiving day.
Delegate, I do this, haha. And, my family members don’t seem to mind. My dad usually prepares and brings over a vegetable and dessert dish to add to our Thanksgiving meal.
If you have baking in mind, do so ahead of Turkey day. Bake ahead, refrigerate or freeze. This will save you time on Thanksgiving morning to do other preparations.
I’m not sure yet, which I need to decide today, what type of meat I will serve. If it’s a turkey, I plan to prepare, season it, and thaw the bird out ahead of time.
Delegate help to clean up after you dine together on Thanksgiving Day. This is a much harder task at my home, haha.
The following, courtesy of Newspaper Metro, gives you tips on how to prepare, organize, and delegate a Thanksgiving Day meal.

Planning an impressive Thanksgiving menu can be enjoyable for many people, while others get a little nervous when tasked with such an undertaking. But getting a head start and staying organized can make planning a Thanksgiving meal much easier than it looks.
Begin by jotting down ideas of which dishes you want to make this year. Traditional foods like turkey and candied yams may be expected, but it’s perfectly acceptable to think outside the box as well. If you won’t be hosting a large crowd, you may want to serve more manageable Cornish hens in place of a larger turkey.
Root vegetables and squash are seasonal foods that can add some autumn flavor to your Thanksgiving dinner table. Potatoes, corn, turnips and parsnips can be served baked or turned into soups and casseroles.
Thanksgiving is a great time to celebrate local foods as well. If certain items are native to your area, such as grains or game, incorporate these foods into the planning.
Once you have established the menu, you can make a list of what can be prepared in advance and what will need to be made shortly before the holiday or the day of. Separate your shopping accordingly. Any frozen or canned products can be purchased in advance of the holiday rush and stored until use. Frozen turkeys also can be bought weeks before and then thawed out when they need to be cooked. Any dairy products or fresh produce should be purchased a few days before Thanksgiving and freshly prepared for optimal flavor.
Rather than spending all of your time cooking the night before the dinner, mashed potatoes and casseroles can be prepared and frozen, then reheated on Thanksgiving. Some foods actually taste better when flavors have had an opportunity to meld. Even some baked goods can be made in advance and refrigerated or frozen until use. Think about preparing batters for cookies or cakes and then storing them in the refrigerator before finishing them on Thanksgiving. Any work you can handle in advance will save you time in the kitchen come the big day.
Timing can be challenging on Thanksgiving. Whenever possible, free up your oven for side dishes and desserts so that you will have ample space inside. A turkey can take up valuable real estate in the oven, so you may want to consider investing in a rotisserie or a deep-fryer so the turkey can be cooked more efficiently elsewhere. Then you will have plenty of oven space for heating side dishes and desserts.
Dense foods should be placed in the oven first to enable them to heat thoroughly. Finger foods and appetizers may only need brief heating. Do not underestimate the power of the outdoor barbecue for quickly heating up foods if you are short on space in the kitchen.