We are just days away for the biggest food stuffing football playing day of the year. At my Toastmasters’ meeting, this week, there were two holiday recipes printed on the back of the agenda. My email has been getting filled with Thanksgiving Day recipes. One friend even suggested and after Thanksgiving dinner coffee and desert tasting time. Food, family, food, football, and more food.

Smelling all those inviting aromas from the kitchen the day before and Thanksgiving morning are so tempting. I know we still have a few more days before the big day, but my mouth is already watering. My mind’s eye is filled with pictures of the orange, browns, reds, and all the other colors that make up holiday desserts. My nostrils are flaring out ready to absorb all those wonderful smell of Thanksgiving Day.

A lot of money can be spent on just this one meal. Many people opt for pre package, pre made meals as well as deserts. Money can be saved by making these Thanksgiving dinner and desserts from scratch. If you ask me, I believe the homemade dessert do taste better.

This year for Thanksgiving I decided to have a little contest. I wanted to know what people were planning for Thanksgiving Dinner. We announced it first on the radio station KKNW during The Northwest Traveler. Then later on Facebook.  We set the radom selection of the winner to be noon Eastern Standard Time on November 17th.

The randomly selected winner was Janice from Boise Idaho. We will be sending a $20 gift card from Winco.  She said her Thanksgiving dinner will include Smoked Turkey, Twice Baked Potato Casserole, Veggies, Homemade Rolls, and Pumpkin Pie from Scratch.

After reading her email, I was very impress how the bulk of her and her families meal will be homemade from scratch as opposed to getting out of box or in some form of container where it is pre-made. For me this is the essence of having a family Thanksgiving Dinner.

If you have not noticed almost every store, is selling Halloween costumes. Some store even have started to Christmas decorations. Thanksgiving decorations are store shelves.

Next to the decoration the Holidays are memorable for the the time with family members. What makes that time with the family is the food.

One of my most memorable Christmas, was a little goat ranch in the coastal mountain range south of San Francisco. Meal planning start months in advance. Cooking of the meal was done in several kitchen from miles around. On Christmas Day dinner was assembled into a mouth watering display. To this day I remember the time together with family and friends, but the food played a big part of the time together.

Last month we went out to have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. The cost for the meal person was within a few cents. Besides we did not have all that prep time, and clean up afterwards. We just walked into the restaurant, order, ate and left.  This Christmas we are going to do something different.

Each family member is picking a course in the dinner to fix. This way no one individual will get stuck with fixing the whole meal. Each family member is responsible for staying withing budget, and cleaning up their mess, afterwards.

The main dish has a budget of $7 per person, while the side dishes and desert is $3 per person. This makes the meal costing $10 each. Leftovers will be count for future meals. Not Christmas dinner.