Preparing Thanksgiving Dinenr

Preparation of Thanksgiving Dinner
When preparing for a large dinner such as Thanksgiving Dinner there is a lot of things that need to be done prior to Thursday morning.   In order for your dinner to turn out exceptionally well you need to plan ahead, and anything that can be prepared ahead of time should be,   so that leaves you more time to spend with your guests.  
About 2-3 weeks before Thanksgiving you need to make your guest list, and plan your menu.   Decide if you would like guests to bring a side dish or desert and if it will be a sit down dinner or buffet style.   You will need to create a list of everything you will need to purchase and gather.
Go grocery shopping for all of your non-perishable items.   Make sure you don’t forget aluminum foil, plastic wrap, cooking spray, paper towels or other cleaning supplies, and don’t forget the table decorations like candles, table cloths and maybe even some flowers.
You will need to consider what table to use, making sure you have enough room for all of you guest to be seated comfortably.   Make sure you have enough chairs for everyone and if you are short a few you can always let the guests know ahead of time to BYOC, bring your own chair.
Make sure you have enough dinner plates, dessert plates, coffee cups and saucers, silverware, glassware, serving dishes and serving utensils, bread basket, sugar bowl, creamer and gravy boat and do not forget the roasting pan and coffee pot.
Let us begin with choosing the right turkey.   First figure out the right size turkey too buy.   Plan on 1 ½ pounds per person if you want left overs.   For example purchase about a fifteen pound turkey if you plan of feeding 10 people. You can check out the perfect portions calculator on butterball.com to help you plan the perfect amount. Also take into consideration if you have guests that prefer white meat you may want to consider buying a butterball roast or butterball turkey breast.  
Next decide if you want fresh or frozen.   There are a...