Taking Stock

If I'm figuring correctly (and you all know, given my mathematical skills, this is a questionable presumption), here's what I'll need to procure before Christmas dinner:


-at least five more place settings






-a set of 20 placemats and napkins (the most I have in a single set of mats is six, though I can probably mix-and-match to acceptable effect. I don't have enough cloth napkins to go around)




-a gravy boat. Scratch that - make it TWO gravy boats, at least





-a couple of platters. I'm going to go with two smallish turkeys rather than one ginormous monster turkey because a) smaller birds are more tasty and tender and b) I feel more confident in cooking smaller beasties to safe levels. The LAST thing I want is an outbreak of food-borne poisoning after my first ever Christmas dinner.



-more silverware. Husband and I had two different patterns of flatware when we met, but they were made by the same manufacturer and match well enough to not be obvious if one person gets one of my forks and the next gets one of Husband's. I'm pretty sure at least ONE of the patterns is still in production, so we'll augment our everyday utensils with another box of whichever pattern we can get and run with that.


Though they won't all match, I have plenty of wine glasses and water glasses. The coffee/tea cups will come with the place settings, so I'll have enough of them to go around as well (and, if it turns out that we borrow plates rather than cough up for new good china - my mom has offered to loan me some of her plates - I have plain, white coffee cups that will serve the purpose). I have an electric griddle that can serve nicely as a warming tray and, again, my mom has offered the use of her chafing dishes, so I'm covered with keeping things warm.

Really, looking at this list? I'd say I'm in pretty darned good shape, hardware-wise. Next, we start thinking about the menu.