Reservations vs. Cooking

Last year when my mom and dad came for Thanksgiving, we made reservations at the Marriott and had dinner prepared, served and cleaned up for us. It was great. We walked right in, sat down, ate a great meal and then spent the rest of the day napping, playing games, and watching tons of football. For Christmas last year we got a turkey fryer as a gift.....and so, we really wanted to try it out this year. Needless to say it was a completely different day than last Thanksgiving. My mom and I literally cooked from 9AM-3:30PM, ate for 20 minutes and then had to clean everything up. Although it was fun to spend time with mom learning how to cook - I think until we have a family we may just be making reservations at the local Marriott from now on!