The holidays are always my favorite time of year, minus all the money that needs to be spent to facilitate it all. Usually the holidays are about spending time with family, especially when you are in college and away from home, but sometimes it is the best time to also be with your friends. Friendsgiving is a great way to spend a day with your best friends, eat good food, drink some (probably cheap) wine, and continue to gorge yourself like you probably will until the New Year.

Friendsgiving is not something you should half-ass, though. I was going to, but my friend would not allow it, and I am grateful for his insistency (also for the fact that he cooked pretty much everything). But there is something about having an actual home-cooked meal with your friends that makes it different than having take-out. It is the fact that you slaved over it together in the kitchen for the better part of a day, wine in hand, halfway shouting orders at each other in between laughing at old memories. It's about all squeezing together at the table, touching elbows, as you reach over and grab seconds.

It's about the fact that everyone had something they should bring, and the fact that if one person did not come, then the dynamic of not only the night, but the dinner as well would be off. It's about the fact that not only did everyone bring a dish or a bottle of something, but they also brought different personalities--the night would have been different if someone wasn't there.

Everyone should do a Friendsgiving because why wouldn't you? It's a great way to do something with your friends that you all contributed to; it's a great way to remind each other how grateful you all are of one another. You can't choose your family and who you spend Thanksgiving with, but you do choose your friends and who you spend Friendsgiving with. It almost makes it more festive that you're with people that you chose to be with, not that you don't love your family, but sometimes there are those aunts, uncles, or cousins you could do without.

So next year, or if you want to do a late one this year, you should do a Friendsgiving. Slave together in the kitchen, laugh about old times, make some new ones, remind each other why you're all friends--not that you need reminding I'm sure--but tell your friends that you love them, that you're thankful for them, that without them you'd be drowning in the stresses of life. You choose your friends, remind them why you did.