Thanksgiving Prep

It all begins, innocently enough, with my simple desire to replace the comforter on my son’s twin bed. After 10 years, it is faded and worn. My husband has a clever idea though – don’t buy another twin comforter, let’s use this opportunity to move the full-size guest bed into our son’s room, since he is now 6 feet tall and not nearly done growing. Our son will be much more comfortable in a full size bed, and we can move his twin bed to the guest room.

I jump on this idea. We are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, which means that several relatives need to spend the night at our house. I will simply buy another twin bed to put in the guest room and we can easily sleep 2 relatives more comfortably in there than we could with just our double guest bed. This plan is looking genius!

Coincidentally, our daughter’s bedroom carpet needs to be replaced. I have the brilliant idea to have this done before Thanksgiving too, so that the whole upstairs looks refreshed for our visitors. Our daughter then decides this would be the perfect time to repaint her room, since we have to move everything out of it for the flooring anyway. Great! Let’s go to Sherwin-Williams and look at paint colors.

So, after visiting the flooring store, the paint store and the mattress store in 2 days, we are right on schedule. The daughter’s furniture is shoved into the son’s room, the first coat of paint is on, and the new twin bed has just been delivered.

I hit my first bump in the road. The new twin bed is much taller and more plush than the old. There is a 4 inch difference in height between the 2 twin beds in the guest room. I have just assembled the Mutt and Jeff of guest beds. It looks, needless to say, ridiculous.

I do what I always do in a crisis (after eating some chocolate). I Google. After Googling - and I am not recommending this - “how to make your bed bigger,” Bed Bath and Beyond comes to my rescue. For a mere $24.99 I can purchase bed risers, which appear to be like little shoe-lifts for your bed, if it is, perhaps, in need of a boost in its self-confidence.

While at BB&B, I realize that my new guest room beds need furnishings. Quickly I pick out sheets, blankets, bed skirts, a valence to match the blankets, new pillows, and mattress pads. Oh, and my son’s new bed will need its own bed skirt, sheets, and, of course, the comforter that started this whole production. I throw in a gravy boat for good measure. I thank God for my Visa card and the extra rewards points I am racking up.

As I load my car with my purchases, I mentally assign guests to each bed in the house and plan to throw sleeping bags on our floor for the kids. We are set.

My cell phone buzzes with a new text from my husband: “My sister is coming for Thankgiving too, Wed-Fri. With her kids.”

Hey – the more, the merrier! I head back inside Bed Bath and Beyond for more pillows. Good thing it’s just a couple doors down from the liquor store, because I am definitely stopping there on my way home.