Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Bring Out The Fine...Chinette? {Letting Go of Unrealistic Expectations}

Little by little, I'm trying to let go of setting the bar too high for myself and causing unnecessary stress. Every year at Thanksgiving I struggle with this. I *want* to have all of the fabulously delicious food prepared by me and a spotless but cozily decorated house plus a magazine-worthy tablescape. OK, even I know that all of these things won't happen so I don't set my bar quite that high! :)

 
I've been hosting Thanksgiving for at least 10 years now, I think. We usually just have "The Brothers" {my brothers-in-law} over. Sometimes there's a niece or nephew along too. They don't really care if I do everything perfectly or not. They come to Thanksgiving at my house for 2 reasons:
  1.  To be with family.
  2.  To eat turkey and all the fixin's.
 They do not come for the following reasons:
  1. To admire "pretty" Fall decor.
  2. To fill up on appetizers.
  3. To feel crowded at the table by too much centerpiece "stuff."
  4. To try new gourmet recipes.
  5. To feel like they have to be careful not to spill on the tablecloth or cloth napkins.
  6. To feel pressured to help wash dishes because of all the fancy dishes used.
So this year, I decided to finish putting out Fall decor only if I had extra time - I didn't. I decided not to make any extra appetizers to go with the ones being brought. I decided to make less desserts than in previous years. I decided not to set up a pretty Fall centerpiece {though hubs surprised me with a Fall bouquet!} on the table so there would be more room for the food.


And I decided to give in to hubs' suggestion that he gives me every year.

  
Yup - those are paper plates my friends!! Nothing but the finest Chinette for our Thanksgiving meal! You know what? Everybody appreciated it! No dish-washing guilt for the guys and no worry about the mess. Of course, they were amused that I still went with the cloth napkins. Baby steps, baby steps. :)

This year's Thanksgiving was definitely less stressful and the cleanup was far easier. Why was I trying to have the perfect table setting and who was I trying to impress? By letting go a little, the whole experience was more pleasant. No, I won't have my Thanksgiving table featured in a magazine, but my guests will be comfortable and enjoy themselves!

And there was this {Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake by Shugary Sweets} for dessert, so how could there be any complaints?! :)


I hope you all had a blessed time at Thanksgiving! Have you tried letting go a little lately?

And if you need any tried and true holiday meal ideas, be sure to check out my Thanksgiving Menu board on Pinterest!

If you enjoyed stopping and smelling the chocolates with me, I'd love it if you click to Subscribe to Stop and Smell the Chocolates by Email or RSS!

Have a blessed day friends!

4 comments:

  1. Perfect table setting! I don't have much for holiday decor. I've been drooling over Pinterest boards and bloggers table settings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm all about less stress. Good for you, for focusing on enjoying your family instead! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm all about less stress and when my dishwasher gets married and moves out I'll probably start using paper. LOL!
    Big even small steps are big steps for me because I have big feet size hugs to you!
    Love ya!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I too have decided to make holiday meals more casual and to allow others to bring something, but I can't do paper plates yet! Good for you!

    ReplyDelete

I would love to hear your comments! Thank you for stopping and smelling the chocolates with me!! Currently disabled anonymous comments due to spam attempts - thanks for understanding!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...