My wonderful Thanksgiving and how we made it work [View all]

[cbayer]

So, I rented a big house for a week and filled it with our 4 kids, their SO's, a couple of inlaws, my mother and various friends.

Before everyone arrived I made a big chart with breakfast and dinner each day. I further broke down each meal to cooking and cleaning. Each meal (except Thursday dinner) had two cooks and two cleaner uppers.

Each guest had a certain number of stickies. The number they had depended on their length of stay. Those there the longest had 4. Others had just one.

As each guest arrived, they were told to put their stickies on the board - signing up for either cooking or cleaning up certain meals.

The crew for each meal was responsible for securing the supplies, preparing, serving and cleaning it up. They were also responsible for drinks.

The stickies allowed easy changes and deals to be made. One of the beauties was that if you weren't on duty, you could just relax and not feel guilty about it.

Despite being given a lot of grief and teasing early on, the system was beautiful and worked flawlessly.

And we had fantastic meals for up to 18 people at a sitting.

Breakfasts:
Crepes
Bagels
Bacon/Eggs
Turkey Hash
Smoothies
Yogurt Parfaits
Beignets

Dinners:
Shepherds Pie
Quesadillas
Gumbo
Turkey Sandwiches
Ribs
Leftovers

Everyone is gone now, and as spectacular as the week was, the quiet of home is most welcome.