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Meryl Streep’s Thanksgiving Disaster You don’t have to go it alone. If your guests offer to help out on Thanksgiving, tell them “hell yes” and take them up on it. Unless your friends and family are complete jerk-faces, at least one guest will at least offer to help clean up after dinner, and everyone else should be shamed into helping. Under no circumstances should you say, “oh, no, I’ll take care of the clean-up.” That’s what they want you to do, and they will leave you with a disaster area of a kitchen and some serious grudges to nurse. That said, if your friends and close family offer to help, and you take them up on it, don’t go too far with their services. You could end up with the people you care about most preparing and serving food to the people you only invited because you felt obligated to. https://www.tausiinsider.com/the-7-deadly-sins-of-hosting-a-big-thanksgiving-dinner/?feed_id=389931&_unique_id=649244a097958

Photo : wavebreakmedia ( Shutterstock ) If you have everything organized on the big day, you’ll have an easier time cleaning and keeping things neat as you whip up the best meal of the year. Make a shopping list now and get as much in advance as you can, provided it’ll keep until Thanksgiving. Identify the things that will be messy, like the turkey, and make a plan for how you’ll clean it up in a jiffy. For instance, have a garbage bag on hand that’s just for your big food messes, like your turkey container and bones. Plan your menu carefully, not only based on timing so it all comes together at once, but based on exactly how and when you’ll clean each element. Ideally, you want to clean as you go. (Last minute, you can also designate an old box to keep nearby as a dumping ground for large, dirty pots, pans, and casserole dishes to easily relocate to an unused room to get them out of the way until you’re ready to dive into a full clean-up.) https://www.tausiinsider.com/15-w...

Don’t look at the camera, Uncle Ron. Photo : Roman Samborskyi ( Shutterstock ) Don’t hold your breath for a Thanksgiving miracle this year—at least, not if you’re hoping to find an   inflation-proof turkey . According to TODAY.com , this year’s meal will no doubt cost you more than any other , with rising prices and supply chain issues hitting nearly every ingredient necessary to create a successful turkey dinner. We’ve previously emphasized that planning early is the secret sauce to serving Thanksgiving on a budget. But even as we approach the final countdown to turkey day, t here are ways you can still find savings while hosting . Shop right now (as much as possible) The big day is only two weeks away, but there’s still time to avoid last-minute price hikes or stock shortages. If you haven’t yet, buy whatever non-perishables you need (like canned pumpkin or fried onions) right now. If you don’t already have a list of everything you need as a host, get on that ASAP . While y...

Photo : Sundry Photography ( Shutterstock ) The calendar says next week is Thanksgiving, which means a large portion of the country will be hitting the road to share a meal with out-of-town family or friends—kicking off the third holiday season of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. So, how many people are we talking about? The American Automobile Association (AAA, aka “Triple A”) is predicting that 54.6 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home this Thanksgiving—a 1.5% increase over 2021, amounting to 98% of pre-pandemic figures. In fact, AAA projects that 2022 will be the third-busiest Thanksgiving travel weekend since the organization began tracking these numbers in 2000. AAA defines the “Thanksgiving holiday travel period” as the five-day stretch from Wednesday, Nov. 23 to Sunday, Nov. 27, and has recently released their travel forecast for each day. These are the best—and worst—times to embark on your Thanksgiving road trip. The best and worst times to travel by...

Photo : SeventyFour ( Shutterstock ) While there’s no way to guarantee that your Thanksgiving gathering will be 100% conflict-free, setting a few boundaries with your guests ahead of the big dinner can help to at least minimize confrontations and awkward moments. Here are a few examples of topics to discuss and agree on before coming together for the holiday. Come up with a food plan Food is a crucial part of most holidays, so it makes sense that when the day’s main activities are preparing and then eating a meal, things can get heated. Between competing recipes and cooking techniques—not to mention literal cases of too many cooks in a kitchen—food-related tensions can run high on Thanksgiving. If this is a yearly problem at your gatherings, agree to a plan ahead of time. In addition to specifying who will make each dish (to avoid duplicates and hurt feelings), also sort out some sort of cooking and heating schedule to ensure that people aren’t competing for kitchen space and oven...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Being around family can be challenging, especially during the holidays. There is no group of people who can get us more instantly unnerved than family. You could invest half your life's savings into therapy -- good therapy, effective therapy -- and, within five minutes you find you're regressing under the stress of the same old enmeshed, craziness in your family that never changes. Before you head over the river and through the woods, give some thought to the following strategies to help you steer conversations towards the positive this Thanksgiving. Rawpixel Ltd | Getty Images 1. Be a listener. https://www.tausiinsider.com/12-ways-to-steer-the-conversation-so-everyone-is-happy-on-thanksgiving/?feed_id=333280&_unique_id=647775f7220c0

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Thanksgiving is the holiday where we are encouraged to be thankful for the good things in our lives -- health, safety, adequate food, clothing and shelter, plus all the material blessings we have. For most people, Thanksgiving is usually more of a personally-focused celebration, including sharing meals and time with family and friends. Hero Images | Getty Images But the Thanksgiving holiday season can also be an opportunity to focus on, and be reminded of, the positive aspects of our work lives. This is especially true in these more difficult economic times, where many who desire employment are unable to find work or have to settle for a job beneath their professional capabilities. https://www.tausiinsider.com/thanksgiving-is-a-reminder-to-appreciate-your-staff/?feed_id=333154&_unique_id=6475169184658

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. In an appearance on Neal Cavuto's Fox Business show, Cavuto: Coast to Coast, Butterball CEO Jay Jandrain made it clear that his company isn't seeing a lot of fallout from higher turkey prices. Maren Caruso | Getty Images Jandrain told Cavuto that his company expects "that everyone who wants a turkey will get one this year." His assertion comes after the New York Post reported that some customers are responding to a rise in turkey prices by cooking chicken this Thanksgiving. "We've shipped, actually, more product this year than we did last year," Jandrain said, "And so far, what we're hearing from the retailers is that pull-through is good, there are no shortages, and everybody should be able to get just exactly what they're looking for." According to Jandrain, 85% of people w...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. This article originally published Nov. 24, 2015.  With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I wanted to share with you 20 quotes that really help put into perspective the power and importance of being thankful more of the time and not just on one particular day out of the year. https://www.tausiinsider.com/20-quotes-on-the-importance-of-thankfulness-and-gratitude/?feed_id=333092&_unique_id=6473e48a5272d

Photo : Elena Veselova ( Shutterstock ) The United States Department of Agriculture might not be the first place you think of when you’re unsure whether it’s okay to stuff the turkey the night before, but they have a hotline built to answer exactly these sorts of questions. Add 1-888-MPHotline to your contacts to be the hero everybody needs for Thanksgiving prep—and, yes, they will be taking calls on the big day. The hotline is properly known as the Meat and Poultry Hotline , and you can call it year-round for any food-safety questions related to meat, poultry, or eggs. The line is staffed by humans from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. On Thanksgiving day this year, it will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET. And if you’re phone-phobic, they can give you answers by email, too. Send your questions to MPHotline@usda.gov. You can also use the live chat at Ask USDA . They have also pre-answered many of your common Thanksgiving questions, which you can access at the website ...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. This column originally published on Nov. 26, 2014. Shutterstock Thanksgiving comes around once a year, but what if we adopted the mindset that every day was Thanksgiving and were intentional about the people and things in our lives that we're thankful for? https://www.tausiinsider.com/why-you-should-treat-every-day-like-thanksgiving/?feed_id=332864&_unique_id=6465ca2b4b58a

Photo : DVKi ( Shutterstock ) Wordle is still played the same way as ever, and if you just want a simple game without overthinking it, that’s all you need to know. But things have been changing behind the scenes, and that includes the way solutions are chosen. Originally, the answer each day came from a list of 2000+ words that was embedded in the site’s javascript code . (If you wanted, you could just view the page’s source and look at it.) This list avoided words that were too obscure or that were simple plurals of four-letter words, and over time I found myself developing a sense for whether a word I was mulling over is “Wordle-ish” enough to be the solution for the day. Sometimes, before entering my guess, I would check it against this no-spoilers list : all the Wordle words are there, but not in order. I could Ctrl-F for, say, “minim” to see whether it’s a possible solution. When the New York Times bought the game earlier this year, at first they kept the old word list. (All ...