Former ‘DWTS’ Contestant Vanessa Lachey Answers If She’d Return to Judge (Exclusive)

Vanessa Lachey appeared on the popular dance competition Dancing with the Stars during Season 25 and looked absolutely fabulous during each performance. However, fans will remember that the mom-of-three, unfortunately, did not walk away with the mirror ball trophy when she was sent home during week seven in a shocking double-elimination. But, it has in recent years become a trend for former celebrity contestants to come back and appear as a guest judge, and Lachey revealed whether she would be up for the job or not in an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com.

“Oh gosh, I don’t even — I don’t think I can judge on how to tell people to dance,” Lachey explained to PopCulture.com. “I don’t really even know how to dance.”

While some would disagree, Lachey is keeping busy these days between being a wife to husband Nick Lachey, is a mom to three beautiful children, Camden, Phoenix, and Brooklyn, and appearing in shows and films like A Twist of Christmas and BH90210, not to mention her hosting gig with Top Chef Junior. Now that the holidays are around the corner, she’s also prepping to host family and friends for Thanksgiving. While it’s an exciting time for all, the 39-year-old has made it her mission to get through the celebrations as stress free as possible and is sharing tips with fans.

“I do all my prep — and I have always done my prep the night before. Sometimes, two days before,” she said, explaining that she details each dish by adding sticky notes on them with the temperature and time they need to cook at.

“I lay out ll the place settings, all the dishes, all of the service ware, all of my casserole dishes, and I put them on the table or the buffet where they will go, and I put sticky [notes] in each dish on what dish will be in there,” Lachey added before specifying what times each meal will be put into the oven.

Something else she does, and encourages others to do that may help ease the stress of hosting a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, is ask people for help by encouraging your guests to bring their own dish. This allows everyone to feel included and eases the tension on the host. Her partnership with Libby’s Fruits & Vegetables has aided in her lack of workload as well by providing less chopping and cleaning time. For some of Lachey’s recipes visit getbacktothetable.com.

Lachey also revealed that she’s into forming new family traditions and one that she and Nick participate in is decorating for Christmas following Thanksgiving day.

“I am all about creating new family traditions with my family. One that Nick and I have done and we’ve continued it with our children is the day after Thanksgiving, we decorate for Christmas. For Nick and I, as soon as the kids go to bed, we start making some festive cocktails, and the Christmas music comes on,” she revealed.

She continued with, “We also cook together. It’s something that means a lot to me because when everybody thinks about growing up, there’s always that memory of either your mom, or being in the kitchen with your dad, or granny, or whoever it was, Mama, Papa. I love that I do that with Brooklyn, and have realized that’s become our tradition.”

While Lachey isn’t expecting to have more children anytime soon, she did admit that she finds kids can be the “best therapy for a marriage.”

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