Thanksgiving Shopping Insanity Test
Holidays are especially rough when you don’t live near family. You look out the window and see that everyone’s driveway in the neighborhood is full with visitors. Meanwhile, your house is nearly empty. Just a tad bit depressing. My parents know this, so whenever they can, they try to spend some of the holidays with us. So I’m really glad they’ll be coming for Thanksgiving this year. They won’t be able to stay too long, just the long weekend – but I’ll take what I can get!
My mom usually cooks dinner – even if it’s at my house. I don’t mind. I’m not the greatest cook, so my daughter and I act as her “sous chefs” 😉 But because they won’t be here until the night before Thanksgiving, I’ve been tasked with going out and getting all the ingredients. As fate would have it – I just haven’t had a ton of time to get out and do this task and have scheduled to do it tomorrow morning. Wednesday. The day before Thanksgiving.
I know, I know… it’s going to be insanity at the grocery store. I’m just hoping that everyone else in this town is more organized than me (which is probably not too far from the truth). I DO at least already have the turkey! It’s been sitting thawing in the Fridge – so I’m not completely out of my mind. (I already made that mistake one year. If I recall correctly – we had to try to “quick” thaw the turkey with hot water. NOT an easy task with a huge turkey!!) But the rest of the ingredients are staples that I just can’t expect to suddenly disappear from the shelves. Green beans? Sweet Potatoes? I don’t really want all this food sitting around my house until we need it. We don’t have room!
Maybe this will be another year a “lesson” is learned. I’m hoping not. Either way, the available time just isn’t there.
In any case, I’ll be enjoying company the next few days. (Hopefully with all the food we have planned! LOL!) Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!!
My name is Jennifer and The Working Mom is my online journal. I'm very bad about updating it regularly. I like writing, but not as much as I 
Go early, early, early in the morning! Stores are usually open 24 hours, and the day before the holiday is bound to be crazy. I’d go as early as I could possibly stand to get up , have my list ready as well as a plan of attack (prioritize the list by where the items are in the store, that way you can just zip through) Enjoy your Thanksgiving!
If you’re lucky enough to shop without the kids, put some good tunes on your iPhone and put headphones in. It’ll make the long lines much easier (and you won’t have to listen to the muzak!)
Don’t beat yourself up. Stores are there for a reason.
If you’re “just” shopping for Thanksgiving, remember that on Friday or Sat you may need to return to the grocery store to get “regular” food. Don’t be shocked by a high grocery bill for Thanksgiving only to later look in the fridge and feel like nothing is there to eat except leftovers! (Or maybe that is just me…. ) I always make sure to buy two very easy put-together dinners when there is a big holiday or people visiting for the two days after: very simple stuff that I might not usually buy such as already prepared meatballs, fish sticks, frozen pizza, cold cuts, stuff to make a meal out of grilled cheese and soup.
FWIW, I always bring shrimp as an appetizer for a big party where I might indulge in snacking. At least shrimp is very low in calories so I splurge on the jumbo. Sure, I could eat the veggies but, c’mon, the other stuff is soooooo good…
Ok. Shopping done! Wasn’t bad at all. I did some of it yesterday and the rest this morning. Which worked out really well because what one store was kind of low on, the other had in abundance. No crowds. No line at the register. There you go. Proof positive that everyone else around here IS IN FACT more organized than I am. LOL!