First Thanksgiving – Wins and Fails

Thanksgiving is sometimes overlooked by Christmas, but not in my house because it’s one of my husbands favorite holidays. So naturally, being a naive, newly married couple we decided to host Thanksgiving this year for both our families. For the most part, everything went wonderfully there were still a couple things I didn’t think of, because I’m still a new adult 🙂

Truth be told, I have very low expectations when it comes to Thanksgiving, and really all family holidays, as long as no one throws the kitchen sink at each other, I call it a win. But, as a host there were a couple of things that I noticed went well, and a couple things that I totally forgot about.

Don’t cook all the food yourself!

For our first Thanksgiving I didn’t want to be too overwhelmed with cooking all the food, so we did a pot luck with our families and told them what to bring. We were in charge of just the turkey, pies, and rolls… and big shocker I only cooked the rolls, every thing else we ordered. I really really liked this, both of our moms love to cook but hate the clean up of dishes, and having to clean the entire house for company. Since I love doing dishes and cleaning the house, opting to have food brought to us was great. But, be warned everyone will leave all the leftovers at your house! So be sure to clean out your fridge.

Make sure your dining room table has a leaf

We actually had a dining room table that would fit everyone!! Make sure to purchase a table that comes with an extender (idk why but I’ve also heard them called leaves).

Stream the Dallas Cowboys game

If you’re in the state of Texas, make sure you have CBS All Access and a big screen tv, because will want to watch the Dallas Cowboys game! We don’t have cable, we cut the cord about a year ago and use Spectrum for our internet (no regrets) but when it comes to sports, things can be a little dicey. Luckily, you can easily sign up to stream CBS on your laptop (I think it’s $5 for one month) and using the CromeCast you can stream from your tv. This is a must for the holidays because it gives people something to do other than talk each others’ ears off.

Make sure you have enough silverware and serving ware

While I did remember to make sure that we had complete matching sets for plates and drink ware, I didn’t think about silverware and serving utensils! For our wedding we registered for silverware but shockingly no one wants to get you ‘boring’ silverware for your wedding. So we got maybe 4 place settings (luckily now I can just add these remainder for my Christmas list).

Make sure you have enough chairs

I did have a dining room table that fit everyone, which in itself is a huge surprise, but I forgot that I only had 6 nice chairs and I needed 8, so we ended up using the bar stools for 2 people (eye roll). So, make sure you have the full number of matching chairs that you need, and if you don’t make sure to buy some foldable chairs.

Get your dog a nice bone to keep them occupied and not begging for scraps

Chloe is a well behaved dog, until she gets excited then all training goes out the window. We had such high hopes that she would be able to sit on the couch and watch us eat, while we spiritually brought her treats… but this completely failed. She’s usually pretty distracted when new bones are introduced, so next year we plan to get her one so she isn’t leaning her head on everyone’s knees 🙂