Try not to stress. To reduce your stress, make dishes ahead of time as much as possible. And do a little searching on the web on sites like Southern Living and Better Homes and Gardens for easy recipes and lots of tips.
As far as potatoes go, I discovered for great mashed potatoes use the golden potatoes. They come out much better. You can partialy prepare these ahead of time. Peel and cut your potatoes the night before, rinse them off and put in a big pot with lots of salt and enough water to cover them and put in the fridge. When you are ready to cook them take it out and put on the stove. When they are done you can mash them and use a little mayonnaise along with your butter and seasonings and a little milk. The mayonnaise helps to make them fluffy. After mashing them use a mixer to fluff. Real potatoes rarely come out smooth but with these potatoes the lumps are small. This type of potatoe just holds up better for mashing.
The stuffing can be made ahead of time also and kept in the fridge, just warm up in the oven when ready. Don't forget that the more stuff you have in the oven the longer they will take to cook, for instance, if you plan to cook two turkeys.
I have a great recipe for sweet potato caserole if you're interested and it can be made ahead of time and put in the oven when ready also. My family loves it.
