We had a Friendsgiving!!
Below is a guide to how we put everything together, why you should do it too, and a word of advice on how to deal with people who were not your favorite back in the day. Also- it's not too late, you could totally still do it this weekend.
I get that this might not sound great to everyone but our high school friend group (which is about ⅓ of the class) has always been close and we always have a great time together. A lot of us have moved back to Fort Worth or Dallas so we run into each other pretty often. However, usually we’re out somewhere loud and you can’t have a proper conversation with people in those types of settings.
It was surprisingly easy to plan, everything really came together on its own. My best friend Isabelle and I had talked about it for a couple weeks and knew we had to invite everyone that we knew was around. Our friend Austin is the first one of us to buy his own home and he has a great backyard, so we asked him if we could do it at his place and he was very excited. We sent out a cute little text a few days later with the invite image above. Austin asked people to send what fun dishes they were bringing, and to our surprise, two people wanted to bring a full turkey and another brought a large ham. Lots of people have been learning how to fend for themselves and cook that were excited to show off their new skills. Even I made some cute sliders!! (Directions below, they were super easy!) We set up a few yard games (cornhole is always a hit; we also recommend Kan-Jam) and several yard chairs all around.
It was such a great time to relax with all our old friends, reminisce on the shenanigans we got into growing up, and catch up on everything that’s been going on since--as a huge group with everyone. I seriously have not laughed that hard in a very long time. I always say it is so important to pursue new friendships as you grow and evolve--BUT you have to maintain your old ones, too. The people that have seen you at your worst and still love you are the ones who are going to celebrate your successes the most. Plus, I find that people I wasn’t personally close with in high school are still great to catch up with because we still share common experiences and you may have even more in common with them now.
One last thing. Don’t let your memory of someone cloud interactions with the people you run into this holiday season. People can and do change and grow. You may have an idea of someone in your head from months or years ago that isn’t fair to them now--and usually, people are trying to be better versions of themselves. If you see people you used to know back in your hometown, give them the chance to show you a glimpse of who they are now. Try to not assume anything about them right off the bat. People get sober and kinder and calmer with age. I know a lot of people who work on themselves and make tremendous progress -- only to be treated by people they care about a lot like they are nothing more than the drugs they tried in high school or the boisterous friend who will get rowdy at the party. If you go into an interaction with them expecting them to act like that, it is awfully hard for you to see who they are today and uncomfortable for them to try to fit into skin they’ve outgrown and worked to shed.
MY SANDWICH RECIPE:
I cannot cook and literally everyone loved these!!
Ingredients:
1 package of Hawaiian Rolls
A lot of honey ham
A lot of baby Swiss cheese
A couple spoon fulls of butter
A good squirt of brown spicy mustard (very scientific amount)
A good shake of Worcestershire sauce
Several big shakes of Everything But the Bagel Seasoning
Mayo
Spicy Mayo
Step 1. Keeping the Hawaiian Rolls as one large piece, cut through the middle halfway. Be careful that your knife is not tilted.
Step 2. On the bottom half, squeeze a line of Spicy Mayo down the middle of each row of rolls and spread. (Do not be too heavy with the Spicy Mayo.)
Step 3. Smother the rest of the bottom half in regular mayo. Be sure to get all the way to the edge.
Step 4. On the bottom half, lay out two layers of ham.
Step 5. On top of the ham, lay out two layers of Swiss cheese. Let it hang over the edges a little.
Step 6. On top of the cheese, lay out one more layer of ham.
Step 7. On top of the ham, lay out one more layer of cheese.
Step 8. Replace the top half of the Hawaiian Rolls.
Step 9. Melt the butter in the microwave (30 sec) and combine the butter, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and EBB Seasoning.
Step 10. Give each roll a good dollop of the sauce you've just made and spread evenly on all the rolls.
Step 11. If time allows, put the rolls in the fridge to cool the butter.
Step 12. Put the rolls in the oven for 30 minutes. If the butter isn't cool, go just until the cheese is melted (20-25 minutes is probably good.) I didn't cool the butter and went the full 30 and the tops just started to burn on the back row and I had to cut off the cheese that melted off and was a little burnt. No one was the wiser.
Step 13. Prepare for everyone to call them mere "ham and cheese sandwiches."
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