Less Stressed Thanksgiving

It is officially the holiday season and with that comes the holiday stress! I blinked and all of Fall is gone! It feels like it was just summer and I was just getting my oldest for school again.... and now I've put up my Christmas tree 🎄

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite memories with my family. Tons of yummy food that we get to spent all day eating and then eating so much food that everyone naps after dinner while we watch a Christmas movie🎅💤 Unfortunately I haven't lived in the same state as my family for many years but I do have friends over to help celebrate this wonderful holiday. This year I decided to try to make things easier on myself. Here is what I did to reduce stress:
● On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving: I made the desserts, a cake & pecan pie. Both take about an hour to cook and I cooked one in the morning and the other in the evening.
● On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving: I mixed up all the components for the green bean casserole and put it in the fridge. Then I made the mashed potatoes and placed them in the fridge as well. I wanted to make Stuffing muffins so I chopped up the celery and apple and placed it in the fridge. All the side dishes done!
● Thanksgiving morning: after having a simple breakfast (my family loves "Monkey Bread" which you buy in the freezer section & microwave for 2.5 minutes. Simple but so yummy!) my family helped me by cleaning the house for our guests that afternoon. Then I took out my serving plates and placed them where I was going to use them later.
● Thanksgiving afternoon: my boys went down for quiet time/nap-time while my husband started to deep fry the Turkey 🦃😍. I actually got to relax a bit before my guests arrived because everything was done.
● Thanksgiving guests arrived: I had all the appetizers out for us to enjoy. And I just had to cook the casserole and reheat the mashed potatoes and heat up the Hawaiian rolls.
Everyone helped me clean up after dinner, I used paper plates for easier clean up and then we enjoyed some time around our fire pit outside. Then dessert and a Christmas movie 🎄🎅

Next year I will be doing the same thing because it was less stress for me and I actually got to enjoy the holiday instead of being in the kitchen away from it all.
How do you deal with holiday stress? Tips?

Happy Mommy-ing!