Thank you everyone! Grainlady, you solved a problem I was having with by suggesting your recipe. It's printed out and attached to my notes and already on my shopping list. We live in Arizona and like a lot of other places, the temps here have been so high that we've been compared to Death Valley temps. Ugh! We were up to 128-129 for a couple days. Double ugh! But hey, it's cooled down to 121 for the past couple of days. :) The pumpkin parfaits couldn't be more perfect and will be one less thing to heat the house up and something the younger kids can put together. We downsized drastically when we bought this home and moved about seven months ago. My kitchen doesn't have half the counter and prep space that I had before...or any other space that we had before. Liz, our friends and family will be helping but I'm kinda OCD about my Thanksgiving dinners. But in planning I'm realizing that it's time to get over it. Strangely, not so much with other meals and since everyone is volunteering kitchen clean-up, meal suggestions, shopping and cooking it's really going to make it easy. So far we have about 35 people arriving in a two week period, with a 4-day window when everyone will be here together. We're expecting that number to rise somewhat in the next couple of weeks. We're lucky that we live very close to a lake and boats, PWC's and a couple motorhomes will be in the mix and arriving as well as our boat and pool, even tho it's a smallish pool. A surprise that we got yesterday was that our neighbor offered us the use of his house! We live in a town where a very significant percent of the homes are owned by out-of-towners as vacation homes and snow bird homes so they sit unoccupied most of the time. Our one neighbor, who we've only met/seen three times had come out to check on his house from out of state and we asked him if it would be ok if our visitors could park in front of his home (on the street) if he wasn't going to be here. Half an hour later his wife came over with the keys to their house and asked if we wanted to use it. We was absolutely stunned! Even today I can't believe it but I did call around and found a cleaning company for after all the company leaves. My husband and I also decided to pay for one month's of their water and other utilities bills so that they aren't incurring a cost as well as take them out for a nice dinner when they're back in town. I made PW's recipe yesterday and my husband didn't complain too much but he wasn't overly excited about it either. I froze a good portion of it as I want to see how it is after defrosting and warming. But, like Annie, I like mashed potatoes the traditonal way and have always made it that way with butter, a little cream and S&P. So that will most likely be the route I take, especially if someone else does all the peeling.That is probably the one thing I hate to do in any meal that calls for potatoes. Here's the basics of how I plan on doing all the hot foods: 2 turkeys - one stuffed, the other not - the 'empty' one done outside in the roaster the day before and the stuffed one done in the roaster outside the day of. Ham - spiral, wrapped in foil and warmed on the grill Two sides (yet to be determined, but sure one will be spiced yams) will be done in crock pots...you guessed it, outside. Deviled eggs started the day before. I'm also toying with the idea of making LindaC's cranberry Jezebel but haven't decided for sure. I've had the recipe for years but have never made it. Potatoes will be done inside and like suggested above, will put them on a back burner. Just so happens that I have a warmer spot on my stove that I've never used so thanx for the suggestion/reminder. I also have two warming plates so I'm sure those will be in use as well. Any other sides will be lighter and cold dishes and easy to make ahead. Our niece's BF makes breads and he's already volunteered to do all the bread and roll making, as well as breakfast rolls. Think that will be done at the neighbor's house. Alot of the eating will be done sitting on the floor or any other place that can be found. Nothing formal about this get-together or turkey dinner. One thing I never do is make appies.........I want everyone very hungry, so a light fruit breakfast the morning of the turkey dinner. Which is why they probably all think my meals are so spectacular because they're all half starving by the time dinner was completely ready. I'm sorry this got so long and that I've been rambling on. I am so very excited about next month and all the company that will be here. We have some wonderful long time friends and family and it's going to be oh-so worth all the time and effort. Thank you all again! Jenna

No, I personally wouldn't put it in--but that's because I don't buy or use canned soups. They're too high in sodium and I prefer to make my own. However, that being said, there is a tomato spice cake that uses canned soup that's supposed to be VERY good (again, have never made or eaten it, myself)--so this recipe isn't totally out of the realm, I suppose.

I seldom follow a recipe for meatloaf. A lot depends on what I have around. I prefer to mix ground beef with pork sausage, usually I have some Hot Jimmy Dean's around. (It's not really hot, just a nice flavor and spices up the hamburger a bit). Sometimes I'll add some bacon or pepperoni slices to it. Onion, dried or fresh or onion soup mix, whatever I have, often I like teriyaki sauce, usually some Louisiana Hot sauce, maybe some Worsteshire or soy. Much depends on the flavor I'm going for. Oh, and an egg or two and I prefer to use torn or cubed bread soaked in some milk and the sauces rather than crumbs. BBQ sauce if I want more of a BBQ flavor. Lately I've really enjoyed more of a "pizza" or Italian flavor to my meatloaf. So I use Italian seasoning, lemon pepper, fresh ground black pepper, some garlic and whatever else strikes my fancy. Mix in a little pizza sauce is fine too but not necessary. I also occasionally will cube up some mozzarella cheese and poke in there for a secret treat. I don't like sweet toppings and don't like it flooded with ketchup like the culinary terrorists do. Scrape that off and put some gravy on there for crying out loud! I kind of like a bit of a crust on there like my mothers would get but seldom if ever get it. Guess the roaster is just too inclined to keep it moist. I like to use about 80-85% beef so there's some fat in there. Then I take a small rack, cover it with foil, poke holes in the foil for grease to drain through and put the meatloaf of top of it. I have a meatloaf pan or two that works OK but I like the exposure all around better. I often bake potatoes along with it but Dottie I really like your idea of everything right in the pan. Apparently it doesn't have an issue of too much grease this way? Or are you just using lean enough meat that it doesn't produce that much? I need to try that sometime.

Cooks Illustrated has a recipe that I used last year at Thanksgiving and it is great. I made the potatoes and the gravy the day before and they were both devoured. I've used multiple times since and will use again this Tday. And one of the best parts is you don't have to peel the potatoes but just scoop out the flesh. You'd think there would be nothing left of the potato with the cooking times but it works. I used a potato ricer and then my hand blender to make very smooth before adding the additional ingredients. The key is that additional 1/2c of cream. The potatoes become kind of soupy and aren't too stiff when reheated. The original recipe is for half (2.5lbs) the one posted (5lbs) but I do 7.5 lbs of potatoes for our family, https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/make-ahead-mashed-potatoes-267672