Photo by dennissylvesterhurd

With the election over (thank goodness!), we’re all turning our attention to Thanksgiving, which is now exactly three weeks away. (Where did the time go?)

I’m no exception. Tony and I won’t be traveling for Thanksgiving. We’re making a big trip to see family for Christmas, so we’ll be home in North Carolina enjoying a quiet holiday. We may invite a culinary-challenged friend or two if any of Tony’s classmates stay behind and want to join us. If not, it’ll be just the two of us.

That doesn’t mean we’re not cooking a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings, though. My amateur chef husband wouldn’t miss roasting a turkey for the world. We had the most wonderful holiday last year. We invited a friend over for dinner and enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast. The leftovers lasted days. I’m looking forward to continuing our tradition of a low-key, no-stress Thanksgiving holiday cooking and eating good food, watching movies, and relaxing.

Last night we began preparing by putting together our Thanksgiving menu. We’ll be making all the traditional dishes, including turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry dressing, stuffing, greenbean casserole, fresh bread, and pumpkin pie. It’s a lot of food for two people, but we plan to eat nothing but leftovers all weekend. :)

Last year we didn’t roast a whole turkey. Instead, we bought a small bone-in turkey breast. I highly recommend that you do the same if your dinner party will be small.

To reduce the impact on our budget, we’ll be spreading out purchases for the menu over the next few weeks. At some point in the next week or two, I’m expecting a big sale on turkey at the grocery store. We’ll pick up our turkey then, and pick up an item or two for the meal on every shopping trip in the coming weeks.

Here’s how some of the bloggers from my reader are preparing for the holiday:

• Frugal Upstate featured a guest post from Steph at Problem Solvin’ Mom on Frugal Holiday Entertaining.

• Not Made of Money offered tips for trimming the Thanksgiving dinner budget without forfeiting taste.

• Being Frugal shares tips for a memorable, yet frugal, Thanksgiving.

How are you preparing?