Potluck Thanksgiving Manners...

This is the second year in a row that my husband and I will host Thanksgiving at our house. I really do enjoy doing it and I'm not as stressed out this year because our house does not resemble a construction zone quite as closely as it did last year. The stressful part is organizing the menu list, which brings me to the point of this post...

I want to inform all of you of an important potluck piece of etiquette that I have realized not everyone is aware of-

Bring a dish in relation to the number of people you are bringing and how much those people eat.

There needs to be a positive correlation there. This means that if you are bringing 2-3 kids and a spouse it's not okay to just bring chips and dip, etc. If you feed 4-5 people for about $5, that is not okay. Why? Because that leaves other people making up for your cheap ass by compensating for your stingy food choice. It's okay to bring chips and dip... but you need to bring a side dish along with it!

The lesson I learned here is that next year I need to be a lot more direct on assigning dishes instead of asking everyone what they want to bring. And if I ever had been a cheap person at potlucks (which I haven't... I love bringing things!) I would have learned this very important lesson through hosting Thanksgiving myself. Most of the guests that come to our house for Thanksgiving know this rule of thumb very well, but just not all of them!

Please reference this very funny story about Stan, The Potluck Freeloader