How to do a Friendsgiving this year

Why not give thanks with a little help from your friends?

Interested in hosting or pulling together a last minute Friendsgiving? All you’ll need is food, drinks and a group of friends!

Whether you are staying in ‘Cuse for Thanksgiving break or heading home to reunite with old friends, your Friendsgiving will be what you make it.

If you are staying on campus, there are a few options that you have to complete your Friendsgiving meal. For one, there is Wegman’s – a dear friend to many students who know about Weggies’ easy and quick meal plates that are extremely good even though they are a bit pricey.

Wegman’s is looking to make your Thanksgiving even easier by providing an online ordering service through their website where you can create your food spread, pay and have it ready for pickup on your date of choice.

Another option is to take to the dining hall and use your swipes to hoard food in your dorm so that it is ready to feast on for your Friendsgiving gathering.

The dining hall hours are shortened over Thanksgiving break so make sure to plan out when you will stock up on food so you don’t go hungry.

Here is a picture of the Dining Hall “Turkey Gravy”…

Other than these options, there are many ways to complete your Friendsgiving feast. As the kick-off to the holiday season and the last time of year to drink your favorite seasonal beers and pumpkin flavored anything, Thanksgiving is also a time to celebrate the friends and family around you while stuffing your face and sharing some laughs.

To further investigate how people celebrate their own versions of the holiday, I consulted a few of the friends that I have made in the past few months.

Sherry from Graham Dining Hall is a familiar face to many of us on The Mount. She is especially excited for her Thanksgiving she celebrates with around 27 of her family members.

She told me she makes a few special dishes for her feast including a vegetable platter with bleu cheese and ranch dips, deviled eggs, a cheese and cracker platter, a Rye Bread dish, and her homemade cheesecakes (which she brings two of and brings cherry and blueberry toppings for).

Whoever hosts the dinner makes the turkey, peas and corn and sometimes they make a ham too. One year, her family had a gravy war. “Of course my mother won” Sherry said. “She has the most years on us so of course hers is the best.”

Sherry’s Thanksgiving is a time for her to celebrate with her family members from all over the country- from Florida to NYC to here.

“You gotta say a prayer before, thank God for having all of us together again. You gotta have the friends and family- it’s great to have.”

Kalyn is excited to head back to Chicago for her Thanksgiving break so she can celebrate what she calls her “Thanks-Gal-Ving” with her girls from home.

“Me and my friends, we call each other ‘gals’, and we were planning on having a Friendsgiving and one of us was like… thanks-gal-ving.”

Her plans for her celebration of friendship and food include meeting up with her gals around 10 or 11pm, after they all spend the day of Thanksgiving with their families, they eat a dessert together and hit the mall to shop all night.

After shopping, they spend the night at one of their houses and whatever time they wake up, they eat “leftovers, a lot of pumpkin pie, cookies, and some wine,” Kalyn said.

“All you need for a fun Thanks-Gal-Ving is a good set of gals.”

My friend Jazmyne highly recommends making these easy desserts for your Friendsgiving table.

Here’s what you’ll need: 2 cans of Pillsbury Crescent Roles 1/2 package of Philadelphia cream cheese Vanilla Cup of sugar 1 tablespoon of butter.

Here’s how to make them:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Microwave butter until melted, add in cream cheese, splash of vanilla and sugar. Stir until smooth and creamy. If it is not getting smooth, microwave it for another 15 seconds or so, but make sure it stays thick

3. Place crescent roles on greased pan and add an ample amount of cream cheese mixture to the center of each role

4. Roll the dough over the cream cheese to close the pastry

5. Place in oven for recommended bake time for crescent roles or until golden brown

6. Take them out, let them cool and enjoy

Sounds like these would go great with some apple sangria or Shipyard- Pumpkinhead beer.

However you decide to spend your Friendsgiving, whether it be by a fire in your yard with a glass of wine, good friends and some leftovers or going feast-mode on some turkey and mashed potatoes; I hope it leaves you feeling thankful for your friends and family and prepared for the cold winter ahead of us.

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