Full disclosure here, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Not because of the family-coming-together thing — that’s more Christmas to me — but because of the food. I just love Thanksgiving flavors. When done right, cranberries and turkey are the best savory/tart pairing I know of. Also, thyme is by far the most underrated herb, and it gets lots of shine this time of year.
But as much as I love Thanksgiving, there are always wrinkles — always one dish still in the oven when dinner starts, or something that feels like it could have been cooked later so that it might spend less time cooling off. It’s an overwhelming sense of chaos, which I typically try to manage with alcohol.
Not so for redditor Alanpep‘s mom. She creates a multi-colored schema that shows exactly what will be cooked when and with which method. It’s shockingly thorough, as you can see — a place for everything and everything in its place.
“Mom, where is the –”
“Alan, just check the chart, it’s all there!”
“Is it going to be cooked in the oven or the –”
“Alan, please, it’s on the chart.”
“When does it get –”
“ALAN! THE CHART!”
Alan’s mom, Cheryl, also creates a spreadsheet of recipes and ingredient lists which he’s generously made available for download. The response on Reddit has been awe and admiration for Alan’s data analyst mom. She seems at once insanely organized and also incredibly endearing and her chart has prompted other Redditors to campaign for a seat at the table.
Not that you can blame them.
