Almost instantly I was transported back to memories of the first Thanksgiving my husband and I hosted as a married couple. We got married November 7th and I was so looking forward to having our families over that Thanksgiving. I meticulously cleaned our house and planned the menu. My husband helped me to polish my grandmothers silver and set the table with our new tablecloth and napkins. I really wanted to prove to our families that I was a grown up; capable of producing this really elaborate meal. So it was with a great deal of pride that I opened the front door when everyone arrived. After serving beverages we sat around and shared stories, watched football and laughed.

I have to admit I was feeling a little smug at this point. You see, my mother had warned me that it was a lot of work to host a big holiday like Thanksgiving. She had wondered out loud if this was going to be to much coming right on the heels of our wedding. I had assured her that my husband and I were more than capable of handling it. With a little planning everything would run smoothly.

With this thought in mind and a little smirk on my face I went into the kitchen to check on the progress of the food cooking in the oven. As I opened the oven door I expected to see all my dishes bubbling beautifully and almost ready to be served. Instead, they were all luke warm and in no way ready for consumption. As I felt the panic rise in my chest I called my husband into the kitchen to see if he knew what the problem was. Obviously, something was wrong with my oven and I didn't know what to do about it. We turned the heat up and the food eventually cooked through and we did serve a wonderful dinner…about an hour and a half later than we had planned. One good thing about eating that late is everyone was starving and couldn't eat fast enough.

A couple of days later, I called an appliance repair company with my tale of woe. They came out to check my oven and said all it needed was to be calibrated. If only I had known that before Thanksgiving.

So this year as I opened a Thanksgiving card from my mom that said, “Turkey roasting, Glasses toasting…Giving thanks that I'm not hosting!” I laughed out loud and then called my appliance repair contractor.

Learn from my mistake and make sure you're appliances are in tip-top shape before the holidays!