Friendsgiving Magic: Looking Forward to Things

Friendsgiving was pure magic. Hooray! There’s always a risk that something might be a big flop—especially if you build it up a lot in your mind in the weeks and days leading up to it.

But the only thing wrong with Friendsgiving this year was that it ended too soon!

The day started with getting my easy-peasy chili into the crock pot and baking apple crisps. I also candied some walnuts for my salad. Matt and Henry headed out to the vacation house early so they could meet the delivery man. We ordered a bouncy house (my first!), six folding tables, and 40 folding chairs from a local party supply store.

I stayed behind to pick up the clutter at our house and finish a bit of work. Then Tate and I drove over ourselves. When we arrived, Tate, Henry, and Matt played in the bouncy house while I started setting up the table. I brought every jelly and pasta jar from our house (Matt saves them to use as drinking glasses), and every glass vase I have. In total, it was about 18 pieces of glassware.

I spaced them out in clumps of three—careful not to block anyone’s view across the table. And then I had the most meditative and relaxing experience collecting foliage from the yard to put it in the glass jars and vases. I found berries on a stick, pretty weeds, dried up grasses—the list goes on! At one point I might have even found poison ivy. I’m not exactly sure. I went ahead and avoided it just in case.

Then I gathered pinecones and clumped those together on the table. Finally, I spread 50 tea candles out across the table.

Next, some of our family friends arrived early and we started putting the final touches on some food stuff in the kitchen. I assembled my salad and pulled together the final ingredients for my chili bar and cheese board.

Folks started arriving around 4pm. In total, we had 34 people. The kids ranged in age from 8 months to 12 years-old. The kids busied themselves with foosball, the bouncy house, the heated cowboy pool, and flipping on the hammocks.

I immersed myself in a few deep conversations and—before I knew it—it was already time for dinner. We lit all the tea lights and everyone helped themselves to the potluck bouquet.

Ever since seeing the show Parenthood, I’ve had a hankering for dinner parties outside, in the trees, with a long, candlelit table. I finally got my dream! It was truly magical.

I’m not sure how the time flew by so quickly. One minute I was talking with friends at the table in the forest and the next minute Matt was coming around with a trash bag and wrapping up the party.

Once everyone left, some of our closet friends gathered around the fire pit while our kids played games in the game room. We talked late into the night. They stayed over with us that night, and we cooked breakfast together in the morning. Then we walked to the local lake and hiked on one of the trails.

It was such a lovely way to extend the event, and I loved sharing our house with friends.

Friendsgiving truly was a very low-key yet high-fun event. Making it potluck and using paper plates and cups helped a ton. And when friends offered to help clean up at the end, we said yes! And planning ahead helped a ton to reduce the stress level.

I hope to make this event an annual tradition! And I hope to punctuate our winter and spring with other community gatherings that I can truly look forward to and then cherish. Cheesy, but true!