According to the Urban Dictionary, Friendsgiving is best defined as the celebration of Thanksgiving with your friends. This year, my friends and I decided to put on a Friendsgiving where we all got together, caught up with all the gossip, and stuffed our face with a home cooked meal, cooked by my two best friends and I. For a few months before our Friendsgiving, we continuously planned this social gathering and kept asking: When do we get home from college? What should we cook? Where should we host it? Who’s bringing the cake?

1. Cook a different meal other than Turkey.

My friends and I decided to cook up an Italian dinner; we did not want to cook a turkey dinner since we were going to be gluttons on Thanksgiving. Since my best friend is a culinary major and a huge foodie, cooking everything from scratch was the only option. We made chicken parmesan with homemade sauce with fresh pasta and Italian bread made from scratch. Although it took several hours to prep and cook, it was worth it.

2. Cook the meal together.

This is a vital part of Friendsgiving. To grasp the entire experience, everyone needs to take part in the cooking process. My friend and I started the sauce at 1 p.m and let it simmer for several hours. At 2 p.m, we made the Italian bread dough and the pasta dough. At 6:30 p.m, we packed the car with some of the prepped food and headed over to my friend’s house who was generous to host. There, we all rolled out the pasta and cut it into strips, put the Italian bread in the oven, made the bread crumb for the chicken. It brought us together as we laughed at how our pasta came out looking like deformed linguine while stuffing our face with crackers.

3. Be Patient, Relax, and Enjoy.

Patience is the golden key. We started cooking at 1 p.m and did not eat until 9 p.m. Although it took roughly eight hours to prep and cook, we didn’t mind. We got to catch up with each other, watch some episodes of “Good Eats’ with Alton Brown, and shop around town. The three of us didn’t care about time because we were free of drama and we enjoyed each other’s company. After the meal, we cleaned up and sat on the couch and my two best friends read their poetry.

4. Go with the flow!

There’s no need to stress. If you forget something, just go and get it. If you mess up the pasta, laugh about it. If you eat too many crackers before dinner, don’t count the calories, just enjoy yourself and have fun.

While Thanksgiving is about family reunions and turkey, Friendsgiving is for time to share with friends, laugh, catch up, gossip, and laugh some more. If you want to have a successful Friendsgiving, be like a Rachel Green instead of a Monica Gellar.