FAMILY DINNERS & HOLIDAYS, ORGANIZING FOR A CROWD

It has been hard to stay motivated lately, let alone offer up anything motivational with everything going on.  We do appear to be making progress with my aunt's situation, but it's as slow as molasses.  I honestly think watching paint dry would be better and faster.

Anyway, for today I offer you up some advice for the upcoming holidays and getting organized.

FAMILY DINNERS & HOLIDAYS, ORGANIZING FOR A CROWD

Once again I'm going to have a houseful for the Christmas holidays so I will use that as my example.

Besides menu planning and doing everything you can to organize, ahead of time, my best advice is to use cutting boards to aid in stacking items in the refrigerator and use cookie sheets as lids in the oven so you can stack multiple dishes on each shelf and have room for the Turkey or Ham and all your side dishes so they'll all be ready at the same time.

For a crowd that will be around for an extended amount of time, I also try to prepare dishes in advance and freeze them when possible so that I don't spend all my 'visiting time' in the kitchen. I may have spent the better part of a day cooking now, but it will be well worthwhile as it will save me tons of time while my company is here.

So to recap:
1) Menu Plan
2) Organize
3) Pre-make as much as possible
4) Stay organized or at least reorganize as necessary