6 Reasons I don’t Cook on Thanksgiving

6 Reasons I don’t Cook on Thanksgiving

It’s that time of year again. The time when people are running around aimlessly trying to prepare for the holidays. What a stressful time that can be. The holiday should be something worth celebrating and enjoying. Most importantly giving thanks. Something a lot of people wait until a certain time of the year to do.

For a lot of people, it’s almost unthinkable not to spend countless hours in the kitchen slaving over Thanksgiving meal preparations. Not this girl. GASP! There are many reasons why I choose not to participate in the crazy cooking adventures of Thanksgiving. Here’s just a few:

1. I hate cooking. Simple enough, right? I can bake all day long but for some reason I dread the thought of cooking. Of course being that I have children I still have to do it. To spend hours upon hours cooking a meal that lasts roughly 30 minutes. No thanks!

2. We don’t have any immediate family that live close to us. We are in Indy and our family is spread out all of the country. Therefor, getting everyone together for Thanksgiving isn’t easy.

3. We still eat great. Just because I choose not to cook doesn’t mean we don’t eat. We have a local butcher shop that actually does all of the hard work for us. THANK YOU! We order everything online and pick it up the day before. All I have to do is throw the turkey breast in the oven and take it back out. We can also order all of the sides we want to go along with it. Not only do I not have to “cook”, we are helping our local economy. It’s a WIN for everyone.

4. It’s cost effective. Since we only order the food we want, we save a ton of money. I don’t have to buy disposable pans and we only order what we know we will eat.

5. I enjoy more time with my family. We all have really busy schedules with work, school, soccer… the list could go on forever and I know you can totally relate. It’s not often that we are all home together at the same time. The last place I want to be is stuck in the kitchen when I could be enjoying a nice game of Jenga. We are still building beautiful memories. My kids are with me in the kitchen most of the time while I make dinner. I understand the importance of learning how to cook early on. Just not on Thanksgiving.

6. Gives me peace!! Thanksgiving is my turn to take a day off. I can stay in my PJ’s all day long and nobody will care. All that matters is we are all together and enjoying it.

I feel like cooking a turkey for the first time is an exciting experience and process. Once I mastered it on my own as an adult I felt like I could move on. Kind of like an adult bucket list thing. Been there, done that. I don’t really even love turkey..

Don’t get caught up in all of the Thanksgiving madness. And stop feeling guilty you chose not to spend your entire day in the kitchen. Make Thanksgiving about being thankful and about doing the things you want to do.