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I’ll celebrate my second Friendsgiving in Memphis this year. The community I’ve cultivated, and that’s found me, in this city makes spending the holidays here warm and an opportunity for deep reflection and gratitude.

Naturally, my Memphis community is a ragtag group of people who reflect many pieces of my own personality: Downtowners, foodies, writers, do-gooders, chefs and community advocates. Some of us were born here, and others had the good sense to make it our home. But we’ve all chosen each other as family.

It’s ironic we come together in the name of “Friendsgiving” amid the depth of our bonds. I look at our collective and recognize food has been a natural through line in all our relationships.

This year, a cozy loft-style apartment will host that motley crew of friends for a mostly catered, partly potlucked meal. We’ll have roasted hens, sage dressing, homemade cranberry sauce and scalloped potatoes. A friend is bringing seafood macaroni and cheese, and I’m contributing sweet potato cornbread. I’m even expecting pumpkin pie from a fellow writer (if she expects our friendship to continue beyond the holidays), but I won’t be sad if she gets me a Butteriffic sweet potato pie instead.

We’ll sit around a collection of formally dressed tables with glasses of punch and sparkling wine, and we’ll pause for our host to express his gratitude for our presence and to pray over the food. My heart will silently echo the sentiment of gratitude as I marvel at the formality around me. Then, a sing-along will inevitably break out — because nothing says family like Anita Baker, Young Dolph and Johnnie Taylor being belted at the tops of our lungs.

My family stopped taking part in traditional Thanksgiving observances around the time my big sister went away to college. Before that, I’d always insisted on a table formally set with all the things I saw on TV Thanksgiving specials: a massive turkey, canned cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing (sorry, no dressing on my childhood table), green beans, and rolls. After all, I knew greens, yams, ham and macaroni and cheese were right around the corner waiting for me at my grandmother’s yearly Christmas celebration.

As I grew up, Thanksgiving began to be about experiences more than a specific meal. I started taking cruises each November with family and friends, and I began to detach myself from the need for a picture-perfect holiday every autumn.

But somehow, picture-perfect holidays found me here.

This week on the Memphis food scene

Local Starbucks workers went on strike. Jody Callahan explains the national move and its local implications.

In this week’s Recipe Exchange, Jennifer Chandler is back with Char’s pecan pie.

A Memphian partnered with a country music superstar to launch a new spirits brand. Learn about Duck Club Bourbon and the people behind it.

“What to Order” continues exploring Michelin Guide-recommended restaurants with Felicia Suzanne’s. Check out a can’t-miss dish from this Memphis favorite.

Michael Waddell lets us know which suburb will be opening an Indian restaurant in the near future.

Brandon LaGrone has details on the new Silo Square grocery store in Southaven.

Lakeland is getting a new grocery store, too. Clay Bailey explains who it may be and what that could mean for the new development.

In Food Files, Sophia Surrett talked about the local expansion of a Mid-South coffee chain and the aesthetic updates coming to a Downtown favorite.

She also reported about a proposed Chick-fil-A could continue to expand across Memphis with the proposal for a location on Winchester Road.

A Memphian may see her dream of owning a Filipino snack bar on South Main Street soon realized.

Holly Whitfield talks with Brad McCarley of Buster’s Butcher about cheese, charcuterie and snacks on “Sound Bites.” Make sure you catch both parts of this two-part episode.

Breakfast at this Bartlett venue nods to a family matriarch and comes to you from a woman wearing a muumuu.

Jody Callahan memorializes the Highland Street bar that permanently closed its doors after serving thousands of patrons for the past 50 years.