You should write an alternative Thanksgiving preperations list for the same magazine. It'd be a short one:
Three weeks prior:
- Make a reservation at a restaurant of your choice
Fixed! 
We went out to dinner once on Thanksgiving and I didn't really enjoy it. That is a meal that needs to be cooked at home, at least for me.
Fortunately, for me, Thanksgiving is pretty easy. Our family is small, so cooking is fairly easy--this year there will be 6 of us. And my mother is super-traditionalist, so every year we have the exact same menu with recipes that are all tried and true, fail proof favorites. Well, brussels sprouts are not my favorite so I refuse to cook them. I told my mother if she wants them, she has to bring them herself.
My mother was never much of a baker, so we all are completely accepting of pies from the bakery. We don't expect all sorts of fancy homemade desserts.
So, our menu, this year as every year:
Roast turkey with totally ordinary white bread stuffing, from my grandmother's recipe
Cranberry sauce (Ocean spray from a can is fine, but I usually make my own since it is brainless to do)
Mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top
Creamed onions (which I make Thursday morning, while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade)
Some sort of green vegetable (usually frozen peas)
Brussels sprouts (see above)
Aunt Cuyler's lime-cheese jello salad (because my father loves it)
Dessert: pies from the bakery, usually pumpkin
Before dinner: Shrimp with cocktail sauce, Brie with Carr's table water crackers
And...gasp!...I usually do the grocery shopping on Wednesday, despite what the list maker said.
L
