I meant to look up "procrastination" but I keep getting distracted...

[muckefuck]

Arrgh! I'm fretting about hosting Thanksgiving. What if my kitchen isn't ready in time? What if my guests aren't comfortable? What if I forget to supply something totally basic, like handtowels in the bathroom or ice cubes? What if, what if? It's got me so paralysed right now that I don't want to go home and start on things. Silly, silly Da!

It's very sweet of monshu to insist on celebrating at my place, since it's the only way I'll make myself clean and furnish, but sometimes I feel like quietly slipping away to spookyfruit's and welcomerain's. Or Nuphy's--it bothers me that the poor man is on his own this year. Oh, it doesn't help that he's also insisting that we go out shopping the very next day for Christmas gifts. Gaaa! Will the stresses never stop?

Comments

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Nope, they won't.

And no one will care about hand towels as long as you have enough mashed potatoes.

[welcomerain.livejournal.com]

You're both always welcome. We'll have plenty of food!

[prilicla.livejournal.com]

I sympathize, especially since, as lhn knows, I can get all tense about inviting a few people over for pizza. For what it's worth, though, I've noticed that my mom, my mother-in-law, and my sister all deal with the fear of forgetting something major by writing up a detailed schedule for the day of the party and checking things off as they're accomplished.

The other thing to remember--not that I personally ever manage to remember it--is that the people coming over are your friends, not random hostile critics. If something does go wrong, they may not even notice. Even if they do notice, it's not likely that a few missing hand towels will ruin the whole evening for them. If all else fails, there's always toilet paper!

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

my mom, my mother-in-law, and my sister all deal with the fear of forgetting something major by writing up a detailed schedule for the day of the party and checking things off as they're accomplished.

Gah, they remind me of this magazine I picked up called Real Simple because it promised it would teach me how to have "a stress-free Thanksgiving," and life in general really. It turns out that the secret to staying stress-free is to make several dozen lists with a time schedule starting weeks and months in advance. The corn bread recipe will keep for 6 months, if you're the sort of person who starts making Thanksgiving dinner in May. If I were that sort of person, I wouldn't be buying a magazine called Real Simple to magically solve all my problems for me, now would I?

Actually I think the real point of this magazine is Martha Stewart on a budget.

[prilicla.livejournal.com]

Probably there are people out there who can throw a big party without breaking a sweat, but I think they're pretty rare. Even my mother-in-law, who loves to entertain, seems to stress out a fair amount when she has people over for a holiday. It must be worth it to her, though, because she keeps doing it.

Just keep adding folks.

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

We had a huge Seder this year, and I think people were so shocked at the number of people we had squoozed into our tiny house and at the copious amount of extra tablage we had had to add that they were stunned and thus not tut-tutting the lack of ice. Probably they were just happy we had drinks enough. As a matter of fact, I was so concerned about getting everything together that I didn't even think about the fact that I hadn't put ice out until just now, reading this entry. Oops.

Also, what she said about mashed potatoes.

S.

Re: Just keep adding folks.

[bunj.livejournal.com]

I was talking to my mechanic today, and he's having 23 people over, not including kids. I think we can all bless our lucky stars, now.

[prilicla.livejournal.com]

I think there were about 40 people at the first seder I went to at my mother-in-law's house. Luckily, the guest lists seem to have been getting smaller recently, but she always has at least 15 people.