The Long Days Archives: Friendsgiving 2017

Last night we hosted our third and final residency FRIENDSGIVING event. And it went off without a hitch! No yelling at my husband and kids like a maniac. No mild panic attacks. And no sink gravy. Third time really is a charm:) Our only "problem" was that we had TOO MUCH FOOD. Like seriously too much food. Pans and pans of leftovers that are currently filling my fridge and part of my freezer. The major item that we had too much of this year was mashed potatoes. That's because last year we ran out of mashed potatoes so I may have gone overboard on assigning the mashed potatoes this year. First year we ran out of dinner rolls...so of course second year we had way too many rolls. Sometimes I panic a little;)

People. People. People everywhere! Our house isn't really meant to host dinners for 70+ people but we make it work.

I'm fairly certain that this kid spent most of the evening digging in the sandbox and/or eating pie. I don't think he actually ate a decent meal, but I can't say for sure. I know he didn't starve and I didn't stress. We call that a holiday meal win!

I do know that I actually ate this year...at the beginning of the meal with our guests. Historically I would be too busy to eat and just grab a plate of food as the dessert came out. But not this year. This year I ate when the food was hot and fresh. And it was delicious.

EM: Lifeguards of the short end of the gene pool since 1967.

I have wanted to make party favors since year one. This year (with the help of moonlighting money) we made that dream a reality. A couple nights ago Joe and I sat down together and decorated mugs with funny quotes about emergency medicine, fall, Thanksgiving, friends and direct quotes from attending doctors. They were a big hit with the crowd. Speaking of crowd, I think I counted 72 people in attendance. Our record breaking year! Being an EM crowd not everyone was there at once. Some had to come early, eat and leave to start their shift and others came later after their shift ended. We attempted a group picture when most people were there. This first one is the one I took - to get the shot set up.

And this next one is the one the medical student took. Disappointing.

(I might still be a little bitter about his sub-par photography skills)

One of the cheesy quotes on a mug was "Friends are the family you choose". In this case "Friends are the family residency chooses for you" feels a little more accurate description. But seriously I am very thankful for this "family". That girl in the bottom picture...she's a second year resident and mom and a phenomenal friend. On her one day off during MICU she took my girls for the afternoon so I could get the house ready for Friendsgiving with a little less chaos than usual. That's a good friend.