It’s Thanksgiving week, and I have a lot to be thankful for during these challenging economic times. Professionally, I’m grateful that our public relations and advertising agency is solidly in the black.

Personally, I’m eagerly anticipating the arrival of 22 family members over the next few days. My husband and I are well-seasoned when it comes to roasting a turkey and making all the sides. That is, we’re experienced preparing for a group of seven or 10.

This Thanksgiving is different. When I add in breakfasts as well as Wednesday and Friday dinners, I figure we’ll be serving a grand total of 123 meals. Gulp.

I must admit, about a month ago the challenge seemed daunting. More than 100 meals for family and friends aged 4 to 82. We have just one oven. We didn’t yet have a plan. For me, that’s scary stuff.

So, I researched. I spent time on epicurious.com and realsimple.com reading make-ahead and stove top recipes. Then we planned. Menus, shopping lists, and yes, even an action plan of what preparations take place when. Right now we’re in a day-by-day mode, but come Thanksgiving morning, we’ll drill down to hour-by-hour.

Last weekend we began executing. I made 10 dozen cookies (they’re small) and pumpkin bread, which are safely stowed in the freezer. A large pan of homemade lasagna waits in the refrigerator.

A bonus outcome of pre-planning: a grilled chicken last weekend. It was Fred’s “practice run” before using the Weber to grill (for the first time) a turkey on Thursday.

A week from now, we’ll have learnings to note … so we’ll be ready the next time we’re feeding so many meals to so many people.

It turns out the well-entrenched, four-step communications process—research, planning, implementation and evaluation—applies to just about everything… even my 2009 Thanksgiving. It works at work. Ask me next week if it worked at home.