Let's talk turkey — and everything else you may be thinking about leading up to Thanksgiving dinner.

Getting a complete, home-cooked turkey-day meal together for loved ones can be a daunting task, especially when you're juggling family, the impending arrival of holiday guests and a hectic work schedule. There are those who gather at area restaurants for Thanksgiving — folks who are happy to leave all the cooking and cleaning to everyone else. Then there are those who feel the world will indeed crumble if Nana's giblet gravy isn't fretted over for hours on the kitchen stove. Some take the middle road, and pair their favorite family dishes with takeaway offerings.

Whichever camp you align yourself with, many Santa Fe eateries provide options that can help you make the dinner bell without first collapsing into your mashed potatoes from sheer exhaustion.

A number of restaurants offer a sit-down Thanksgiving dinner that takes the kitchen burden away; but of course, you'll have to pay a bit more for that privilege. The Old House restaurant and the buffet spread at Eldorado Hotel and Spa, Ristra, La Casa Sena, 315 Restaurant and Wine Bar, The Compound, Coyote Café, Geronimo, Zia Diner, and many other venues are providing respite from the turkey timer/Butterball Hotline nightmare this year.

And at the Anasazi Restaurant at the Inn of the Anasazi, Chef Oliver Ridgeway is offering special holiday menus for lunch and dinner (what time does your ballgame start again?). If you plan on dining out for Thanksgiving, call around and surf the Web to find the menu that best suits you, your dining mates and your respective budgets. And because you're so on top of things, you'll certainly make your reservations with plenty of time to spare — and ask if gratuity or wine service are included in the base price of the meal.

If you want to dine at home with friends and family but your kitchen is the size of a bathtub — or if you just feel like relaxing with guests instead of stressing out about coordinating the doneness of every homemade dish or attacking a pile of dirty plates while slothing about on a tryptophan bender — you can still farm out some or all of your Thanksgiving eats.

La Casa Sena recently stopped taking orders for its complete takeaway Thanksgiving dinner, but the folks at Whole Foods Market on Cerrillos Road (992-1700) and St. Francis Drive (983-5333), are still taking orders for complete dinners and sides for two to eight people — including vegetarian and vegan options. Meals range in variety and price (raw and cooked turkeys are available), and both stores say they will take orders up until a day or two before the holiday. But the earlier you call, the less chance there is you'll be frantically searching for that one dish you can't live without.

Embudo Station (852-4707) continues its tradition of serving up brined, pre-smoked organic turkeys ($50 for a 15-pound bird), and this year's batch comes from Colorado, distributed locally by Pinnacle Meat Co. If it's dessert you're after, you can place an order with Embudo Station for apple, pecan or pumpkin pies, or, according to a news release, you can suggest a pie flavor of your own design.

Real Food Nation, that bastion of locavore edibles out on Old Las Vegas Highway (466-3886), is serving up an "Everything But the Turkey" a la carte menu, which includes sides, condiments and desserts. Stuffing, roasted squash, organic pumpkin pie, wild rice chowder, breads, cranberry relish ... if you have a gap in your menu and want to keep your sustainable cred intact, Real Food Nation aims to make things right. Pre-order cutoff is Saturday and pickup is Nov. 25 after 4 p.m. or Nov. 26 before noon. Call for menu selections and details.

The Tart's Treats (986-6866), which took up residence at 301 N. Guadalupe St. this summer, is taking orders for house-made desserts for Thanksgiving until Friday. Pumpkin pies, pecan pies, cranberry upside-down cakes (using fresh cranberries from Cape Cod for a limited time), and some customer requests can be had. Orders are to be picked up on Nov. 25, and according to the proprietors, "in the Tart's efforts to be even more green, we encourage folks to bring by their (durable, NSF-certified) pie pans; we will be happy to bake using them, saving our landfills and recycling centers from having to process the foil disposable ones." Dish n' Spoon Café and Gifts (983-7676) is also serving up takeaway pies, but you better hurry: Orders need to be in by this Friday.

There are many individuals and families throughout New Mexico who don't have the option of preparing a special table or dining out with loved ones during the holidays. The slumping economy has put the New Mexico's (and our nation's) food security in even greater danger; food banks, shelters and outreach services for at-risk populations are feeling the pinch, and the number of people who need these services increases daily. Volunteering your time and donating nonperishable foods and other items to the local food bank, shelter or food drive of your choice makes a big difference — and not just during the next few months. Contact your local food banks, religious organizations and youth/family/homeless shelters to learn what you can do through volunteerism and donations to help. In the sprit of the coming holidays, it's time to be thankful not only for what we have — but to shed ourselves of what we can, most probably, do without.