Is there an aspect of hosting a big holiday meal that causes you the most anxiety?

My Thanksgiving cactus plants are just now blooming. I started
these plants from cuttings poked into pots of dirt a few years ago.
They now look like respectable plants.

For me, the anxiety moment is the last hour before our guests arrive. I've never come up with a way to make these last minutes less stressful. I'm trying to get the food ready while keeping the kitchen clean and also while getting myself put together (dressed, makeup, and hair). After everyone arrives, I do enjoy the gathering, even the cleaning up afterward. 

I was thinking about this today as I was making our Thanksgiving meal plans. I really began to dread the day. Even with preparing dishes ahead and finagling some help from family, there are still many tasks that need completing at the last moment. This is the aspect I dread most about entertaining.

How about you? Do you have an aspect or part of hosting a holiday meal that you dread or have anxiety over? And do you have any tips for dealing with the last-minute rush of getting everything completed just before guests arrive?

So I made one of your soup suggestions -- thanks!

One of the requirements of our little soup exercise last week was to use ingredients you had on hand at that time. Well, this week, I happened to have all of the ingredients to make one of the suggested soups. I made Chicken Pot Pie soup. 

I need to work on it, though. I had pie pastry for half of a single crust. next time I will make more of the pie crust strips, maybe using a full single crust of pastry. I also over-baked the pie pastry. I'll have to be more watchful the next time. Despite this, my family loved it. This is a fun and easier alternative to traditional chicken pot pies. If I was feeling like being fancy, I would cut the rolled out pie pasty into a single large shape for each bowl. It would be super fun to have a chicken cookie cutter for the pie pastry, I think.

Big thank you to Amy in the comments from last week for making this suggestion!