Holiday Meal Planning

I prepared for Thanksgiving by planning everything in advance. I ordered my first farm raised turkey, about 20 lbs grain fed, and picked that up the day before. I baked my first set of real Parker House rolls. I was experimenting with a wonderful book called "Baking in America" with many original or traditional baking recipes. They took half a day to prepare but they were unbelievably good. In fact, I'm making a new batch right now for a dinner party we're attending tonight. I made the usual green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole w/ fresh orange juice, brown sugar & marshmallows (very Southern), garlic mashers and the best gravy I've ever attempted. Actually, I hate making gravy but I read three recipes on how to get it right and it was easy and it was lacking in grease. I used paper towels to blot out the grease from the pan...an old fashioned trick. It worked. I used the fresh giblets from the turkey which I'd boiled over 12 hours to make the broth for the stuffing and they were great. I normally don't make giblet gravy either. Anyway, I made pecan pie and a pumpkin chiffon pie in a gingersnap crust and it was light as a feather. Good thing I baked over a four day period. It was my best Thanksgiving dinner ever. I guess I got into it because my eldest son is home for 5 wks (broken foot--skateboarding--don't ask) and the youngest was home, the in-laws were here and it was all family.