Turkey for you, Turkey for me

One week from today I will be reunited with amazing friends, eating a nice dinner, drinking wine, chatting and, most importantly, molesting a dead turkey.

Ever since freshman year of college me and my two best friends from High School have started a Thanksgiving tradition. All three of us went to college on the East Coast and didn't really have the money to fly all the way back to Colorado for both Thanksgiving and Christmas so we decided that we would spend Thanksgiving together on the East Coast. Our first attempt at Thanksgiving dinner was really horrid. We were at my dorm in DC and didn't really have a proper kitchen. We managed to make stuffing out of a box, instant mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, turkey sandwiches made with lunch meat and ate a store bought pumpkin pie. It wasn't the greatest meal but it was fun and being with my best friends made it even better. A tradition was born. We no longer live close together (NYC, Rochester, NY and Portland, OR) and we no longer have to make our food in a dorm kitchen but we still get together and we still curse the fact that we don't have a dishwasher.

Since then, we've become experts on Thanksgiving dinner. This year will be our 6Th Thanksgiving together, but our first in NYC. Our menu now consists of the following:

TURKEY (we usually make a turkey big enough for 15 people. It feeds us all weekend, if we're lucky)
STUFFING (homemade now)
MASHED POTATOES (still using instant. i refuse to peel potatoes.)
SWEET POTATOES
GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE
CORN BAKE
ROLLS
CRANBERRY FLUFF (cranberries in sugar with marshmallows and whip cream...drool)
APPLE PIE
PUMPKIN PIE

The first time we made a real turkey we found it hilarious that we had to rub down the turkey the night before to marinade it (give us a break, we were 18). That year we took many suggestive pictures of us sensually massaging butter and spices into the turkey and ever since then our yearly turkey molestation has become a highlight of our time together.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this...

We grow up, we graduate, we move, we get jobs, we get boyfriends/girlfriends, we quit jobs, we change careers, we break up with boyfriends/girlfriends, we're happy, we're sad, we change, we become adults but I will always have Megan and Whitney and Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for that.