Growing up I was fortunate to live within driving distance of my mom and dad’s extended families. Each holiday we would get in the car and head north to spend the day at my grandparent’s houses. We’d usually start at my dad’s family and then end the evening with my mom’s family.

It was at my maternal grandmother’s house where I learned the love of list and prior preparation. When we arrived at my Grandma’s there would be a skinny long note pad with her cursive lettering outlining all the items to be cooked for the meal, the temperatures at which they will go in, and the time they need to cook. To me, she was most certainly a math whiz, with her ability to backward plan to be able to get everything in throughout the day and have it all come out warm at the exact time she set dinner for.

Holiday meals at my Grandma’s could have been a one-woman show, but if you proved that you had kitchen prowess she would allow you to enter and help with the preparation — especially if you could follow THE LIST.

During childhood, most Saturdays we went to my Grandma’s house for the day to visit, so I knew my way around her kitchen. By the time I could read her cursive writing, tell time, and knew the layout of where things were in the kitchen I was integrated into the holiday preparation. The job I prided myself on the most was keeping the list on schedule — especially after the Cold Duck had been popped!

I loved orchestrating the madness and ensuring things were staying on schedule. There were often hiccups, such as a guest bringing a dish that needed heated that wasn’t on the list but we always seemed to make it work.

The biggest snafu occurred prior to me being deemed kitchen helper ready. It was Thanksgiving and I heard the timer on the oven going off – a sound that I had no desire to continue listening to while my mom and grandma were out of the room. I went over and hit “Cancel” on the oven. Quite a bit later my grandma opened the oven to baste the turkey and found that the oven was completely off. Turns out on my Grandma’s oven the cancel button turns off the cooking elements, it’s the “timer” button that would have turned of just the alarm. This left us having to guess how long the oven had been off and delaying dinner for at least an hour.

If anything that Thanksgiving’s snafu taught us that having multiple kitchen appliances was key to holiday success. To be honest, this probably is the reason my Grandma switched to cooking the turkey in a roaster that was stationed in the garage (her obsession with ordering from QVC probably helped too though). This made anyone eager to take a turn to go into the very cold garage to gather items from the garage fridge and take in the smells of the turkey. A toaster oven on the counter made for a great place to heat up a side dish, and then minutes before the meal was served that dish would be foiled to stay warm and rolls would be popped into the toaster oven for warming.

With all that I’ve learned from my Grandma, I am putting it into action this year as we host Thanksgiving at our house with about 10 adult guests and our two kiddos. You can bet I have the list of all list going. And thanks to Google Drive, this list has been shared with the other “chef’s” that will be helping make the day possible so we can all add to the logistics planning (including which appliance an item will be cooked in) and for me a shopping list by store. I even added a few categories (such as entertainment and beverages) so that on the day of Thanksgiving I can print the list and if someone asks how they can help I can name something on the list and they will have more context on either how to find it or what needs to happen next.

I will be 100% honest — hosting at our house and spending time building all the lists is making me even more excited for Thanksgiving. If a template of this list would be helpful for you, click here: Best Hire Ever Holiday Hosting Cheatsheet to get access to my GoogleSheet. You’ll be able to “Make a Copy” and remove my items to add your own!

I’d love to know what Holiday prep looks like for you! Leave a comment below on what works well or an area you need some help in!