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In honor of National Stress Øut Week, a week-long awareness campaign sponsored by the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA) to encourage people to take time to de-stress and to discover the differences between everyday stress and an anxiety disorder, we are looking for ideas to help make Thanksgiving less stressful.
If you would like to share some ideas for de-stressing the holiday or if you have some soothing activity suggestions for yourself and/or your child, we would love to hear them. Comment here or visit our Blog.
We will post these suggestions and appropriate links throughout the week.
This may sound a bit like sour grapes, but I have never particularly enjoyed Thanksgiving. Our society has enough problems with overeating that adding a day, whose real meaning has been lost, and creating a sanctioned overeating day just kills me. I've sat round table after table with "old family recipe this" and "my favorite that" being foisted upon me no matter what I say. No more, I am taking control.
My husband and I are planning a trip to the Maine coast with out girls. We'll begin a tradtition of our own that revolves around being thankful for each other, not around bird injected with nitrates and who-knows-what-else.
I would suggest ordering your meal from Boston Market! Their Chilled Banquets are so delicious and come all ready. You just pick it up at the time you pick (I would suggest earlier vs. later - ours gets crouded closer to noon) and heat it up when you get home. We have done this now for the last two years.
The food is really good. The pricing is actually CHEAPER than what it would cost you to go get all of the ingredients at the store on your own. And it is totally worth it for the stress relief!
I'm not a Thanksgiving fan. I adore food but most people try to cook beyond their skill level at Thanksgiving and everything ends up dry, soggy or tasteless.
Don't cook anything you don't cook comfortably all the time. Lots of family coming over is the wrong time to roast a bird if you only do it once a year. The pressure will make you miserable. Cook things you enjoy cooking and are good at. Have other people bring other items or get them pre-made from the grocery store. If people object to not eating bird because you've decided that you'd rather do lasagna, well, since when do guests get to dictate the menu anyway? If they don't like it, let them host the dinner and you can bring a nice bottle of wine or a pint of ice cream and wash your hands of the whole, stressful affair.
Last year, when i was 41 weeks pregnant, we ordered our Thanksgiving dinner from Whole Foods. It took all of the stress out of planning and cooking, but we still got to enjoy a very tasty meal.
My son ended up making his debut (at home in a planned home birth) on Thankgiving Day. He was born around 2:14 p.m., and by 3:30 p.m., myself, my husband, daughter and sister, as well as our midwives were all feasting on our premade turkey dinner. It was one of the best meals I'd ever eaten. :) And we had leftovers for about a week afterwards which was especially nice since we were all too busy enjoying our new son to cook!
I don't know why I'm not doing it again like that this year (the Whole Foods part, not the giving birth on Thanksgiving Day part), but there's something about cooking it all at home that's quite satisfying (when you aren't 41 weeks pregnant). ;)
I can definitively agree cooking things you know is the way to go. Holidays are already stressful enough, cooking unfamiliar recipes almost always leads to disastrous situations...only making the stress worse!
If you can't help but try something new...do a trial run a few days before...then you know what needs to be adjusted!
Due to a stressful MIL situation (that is no longer an issue, I'm thankful for that) as well as being a nurse, I have never really been able to enjoy Thanksgiving. This year for the first time in YEARS, I will be spending the day with my family at my sister's house. I'm bringing a side dish and pies.
When I was little, I remember going around the table and saying what we were thankful for. As a family, we decided to do this at different times of the year. I think it's important to remember all year what you are thankful for instead of just one day.
There are a lot of good ideas here. I posted a recipe at my blog today, and a few suggestions to make entertaining easier (I know my list makes it easier on me).
