It’s not always possible to make it home to your family for Thanksgiving, but you can still do it up right and have your own celebration. If your roommates will be around, plan something with them. Your gathering might not be traditional, but with some creativity you can make this Thanksgiving your own.
- Take a vote: Ask your roommates what they’d like to do. If there’s a consensus, you have a place to start.
- Expectations: If you want to do a turkey with all the trimmings, but your roommates would rather do something more low-key, come up with a compromise.
- Divvy up the workload: Make sure the workload is evenly divided. If you always get stuck with after-dinner clean up at Thanksgiving in your family, you know that’s not cool. Share the meal planning, shopping, cooking and cleaning tasks.
- Fancy or informal?: Will you buy some holiday napkins or decorations to set your table? It might also be fun to get dressed up and make the occasion more special, but if you all vote to lounge around in sweats, go for it.
- Budget: If money is tight, be mindful of a workable apartment budget that’s fair to everyone. Chip in more if you have something special you’d like to contribute and can afford it.
The Menu
Ask family members for recipes if you want to blend holiday traditions into your Friendsgiving celebration. If you want to try something new, there’s no shortage of great online recipe resources to explore. MyRecipes.com has selections from tons of food magazines. For the more adventurous cook, Epicurious.com and FoodNetwork.com have both easy and more advanced recipes. If you’ve just recently moved into your apartment and the kitchen isn’t fully unpacked, stick to one-pot dishes like soups, casseroles, stir-fries and pastas.
And if you and your roommates are burned out and just need some time to crash over the holiday, it’s OK to order pizza and do a Real Housewives or Walking Dead TV/DVD marathon. Hey, the holidays are what you make them! Enjoy!
This is a guest post from Nancy LaFever at MyMove.com
