This is a special repost of an article that I wrote 10 years ago when my Thanksgiving cooking partner was 13 and I was a young 33 (well, maybe the math is a bit off for my age, but only my mom knows how old I really am!). Enjoy the memories with me.

We are typically a very healthy family—at least currently (though this was not always the case). So with the rarity of snowfall in Charlotte, four of the six of us were sick on Thanksgiving. My 13 year old daughter, Kayla, and I were the only two who were healthy. That meant that I would be the designated chef for Thanksgiving. The problem was that I do not cook—at least not often, and certainly not a meal of Thanksgiving calibur.

I tried to get out of it.

"Why don't we just move Thanksgiving to Sunday?" I asked. "By then everyone will feel better." Nope. I lost that battle. Regardless of how sick anyone was, we were having the Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving! Apparently holidays cannot be moved. And my ulterior motive of getting out of cooking by myself was thwarted.

So at 10am I got the bird out of the refrigerator and began searching for the cooking instructions. Apparently these turkeys take a long time to cook (5 hours according to my calculations at the time) and use up the entire oven. Our kitchen counters were covered with boxes, jars, and bags of food. I start looking at all of the other items that I was supposed to have prepared: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy, stuffing, bread, and the list went on….

And then the wonderful happened.

Kayla came downstairs. She began putting on her apron and asked, "How can I help you?" Wow. What a wonderful question. And by the apron I could tell she was not just asking in order to be polite on Thanksgiving. She really wanted to help. She was excited to help. And was prepared to help. My first thought was to see if she could convince her mother to change the holiday since I had failed in my attempt. But Kayla talked some sense into me. (Her 13 year old wisdom often beats my 40 something year old wisdom.) We saw that there was a great opportunity for us—an opportunity to learn and to serve. However, I had no idea where to begin. The thought of cooking the entire meal was completely overwhelming to me.

We had to get organized.

I asked Kayla to get a pad of paper and a pen. We needed to write all of this down and get the meal organized. We began looking for instructions, ingredients, cooking times, and cooking locations (oven, stovetop, or crockpot). We set our desired finish time for 4pm and then worked backward considering how long each item would take to prepare. We realized that since the turkey was the biggest item and would take the longest to cook that we had to get that going first. And once we got the bird cooking we could then shift our focus to the other items and prioritize them in the same way.

Turkey time!

The turkey did cook faster than I had calculated (so much for 15lbs at 325 = 5hrs). Thankfully I had read an article in the newspaper that stated what to do if the turkey finished early. So I covered it with aluminum foil and kept it on the stovetop to keep it warm. And since we had our prioritized list we knew exactly which items to focus on next. Given our novice cooking abilities, we did not have everything ready by 4pm. We were close. Only an hour off. Not bad at all for first-timers. The food actually turned out pretty good. And plenty of leftovers—we did completely overestimate how much everyone would eat (apparently my wife and my three boys do not eat very much when they are not feeling well).

What I learned.

Aside from having a great time of father/daughter bonding, I learned some wonderful life lessons.

Make a list.

When you feel overwhelmed with a task, make a list of the various parts of the task. Break it down. This will help define the task into manageable segments. You will feel much better once you know exactly what you are dealing with.

Prioritize the list.

Once you have the list, prioritize it based upon importance. If you have one item (like a 15lbs turkey) that is central to your overall success, you need to work on that first.

Have a contingency plan.

It has been said that planning is indispensable, but plans are worthless. The end result is almost always different than planned, but it is process of planning that enables you to have a great result in the first place—even if that result is different than originally intended. You have to know that your calculations might not be correct (some turkeys apparently cook faster than others). Be prepared for changes that you might have to make along the way. Have a "Plan B" and perhaps a "Plan C" ready to go just in case.

Show up with your apron on.

This was by far the best lesson of all. There is the classic, "Let me know if you need any help" offer that we make to others. Which is, of course, our way of saying, "I am just being nice, but I really do not want to help you and I hope that you will not ask me." We all do this from time to time. We don't want to be bothered by others and their needs. However, this is completely insincere. Take a lesson from a 13 year old and do what my daughter did. Don't just "offer" to help—actually get in and help. Show up with your apron on: ready, able, and excited to help! This will transform both you and the person in need.

I do hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.