Remember the saying “make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other is gold”?  Well, I'm happy to say that I’m lucky enough to have a few old friends and we’re a tight-knit bunch.  People always say that when you get older, it gets harder and harder to find friends, and I also find that that statement is absolutely true.  My friends and I have known each other since college.  We haven't expanded our group really since then.  If my friends decided to suddenly move away, I don't know what I would do.

 My friends and I have a standing tradition: once a month we get a together and have a dinner party at someone's house.  Sure, we could go to a restaurant, but we would rather eat at home.  Every time we go to a restaurant, it feels that we are being rushed.  We get there and within 20 or 30 minutes of sitting down, we have our food in front of us.  As soon as we’re finished eating, the waitress or waiter brings the bill.  It isn't very much fun.

 We always switch houses, so no one has to host over and over again.  I have one friend, who just got married and every time she hosts the party, she says the same thing: “you've got to look at this Lenox solitaire china.  It belonged to my grandma, and now it belongs to me.”  We all pretend to oooh and ahhh over the plates, but in reality, we're not really that interested in them.  In fact, we're more interested in the killer chocolate cake that she can bake from scratch.

 Getting together with my friends every month is a way to keep up on each other's lives.  Plus, we each have a specialty that we can cook or bake, so it's a pretty tasty meeting, too.