Tuesday Randoms

I can't promise today's post is going to be a coherent one, but I wanted to write a quick little update on the Thanksgiving dinner we're hosting at our apartment on Thursday.

Let's just call it our 1st Annual FRIENDSgiving!

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I did this with my group of friends during grad school, and I still consider it one of my best memories from that entire year (and even college). We all dressed up, piled 20 people and even more food dishes into Tom and Jacob's tiny little apartment, drank way too many bottles of wine, and had a million laughs.

I remember looking around the apartment that night and finally feeling truly lucky for how my life had turned out. Grad school was a big change, my boyfriend of 5 years and I broke up, and then I immediately fell head over heels for another boy (Ryan and I were just friends at this point; it obviously didn't work out with the other boy - although, he, Ryan, and I remain best friends to this day). Grad school was a lot of ups and downs and November wasn't even close to the start of it all, but that dinner was probably one of the most fun nights I had in my college years.

I jumped at the opportunity to recreate some of that fun in our new home of Greenville! Lauren and I have lived in our apartment for 15 months and since I'll likely buy a house before next Thanksgiving, there was no time like the present to celebrate what we're thankful for!

We're doing a potluck dinner where everyone brings a side dish or dessert and Trent and Holly ordered our turkey from Publix. We really wanted to fry the turkey, but that was going to require too much work and time!

I started dreaming of all the things I could make - we're having a Thanksgiving Lunch at work next Monday and then of course our actual Thanksgiving dinner with family on Thursday, so I wanted something different so I don't get burned out on the traditional Thanksgiving feast!

Side note, it's not really possible for me to get burned out on food. I love Thanksgiving! It's tied with Christmas for my favorite holiday!

I've finally narrowed it down: I'm making this creamy confetti corn and these apple pie bites. I'm really excited about these new recipes and will have quite the crowd to test them out on!

But herein lies my problem: the apartment is not equipped for the 13 people we're expecting. I called my mom in a panic today saying, "I don't even have enough plates, wine glasses, and knives for 13 people!"

Haha, Mom to the rescue. She's coming to Greenville with backup and even bringing me some table decorations!

Let's hope next year's dinner is a little more organized! But I hope to have lots of pictures and a success story after the big event!