Turkey Day, College Style

Hello out there,

Happy Thanksgiving! I had a lovely weekend and am now gearing up to go home tomorrow!!! I am very excited to see my family and to eat some home cooked meals! However, like me, my friends love Thanksgiving so we like to have a little home-cooking right here at GW. Since my Sophomore year, my friends and I have gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving together before all going home.

[This isn't really our table. We're in college! We don't have that much time on our hands. Why do you think I'm excited to go home?]






To me, it makes sense. When you are away from your home and your family, GW becomes home and your friends become your family, so why not celebrate together? We all cook or buy something to contribute to the meal, and we go all out. I'm talking turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green been casarole--the works.

The past two years have been a time for all of the people I worked with in summer 2008 to get together. The Visitor Information Program, or VIP for short, is a summer program through the GW Undergraduate Admissions Office where students live and work together in the Admissions Office and as tour guides. There were about 20 of us in 2008 (2k8) and we get together every so often to catch up--especially around the holidays. Last year we had Thanksgiving at our friend's apartment and almost all of us came (except those who were studying abroad) and enjoyed a huge feast! This year, my roommate and 2k8 alum, Spencer, and I hosted. Although not as many people were able to come, we still had a lot of food and fun! I made mashed potatoes and bought cranberry sauce. We had turkey, two types of stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, candied yams, and my friend Emily's specialty, corn pudding (which sounds kind of weird but it's really actually very good). We, of course, had pumpkin pie for dessert and spiced cider. Yum! We all had a great time and it just puts me in the mood to go home and eat more Thanksgiving goodies!

It's a dreary day here in DC and I can't wait to go home tomorrow afternoon. My friend from high school goes to American University so we are driving home together, as we have the past two years. I'm lucky enough to have a group of friends who like holidays as much as I do, and we have some great traditions, even beyond the holidays. Wherever you end up, I'm sure you'll find friends with whom you'll make your own traditions!

--Abby