Even though we have lived in Los Angeles for almost 6 years, it still doesn’t feel like home. Until we put down roots, so to say, my home will always be where my parents are and the city I grew up.

Now with the holidays fast approaching already upon us, planning trips to our hometowns have been weighing on our minds. No matter how hard we try to plan ahead and book holiday air travel well in advance, we never seem able to. With our busy schedules and the price of holiday travel increasing with each passing day, we decided to stop stressing out and just spend the holidays with each other in LA.

When I decided that I wasn’t going to go home though, I got depressed and felt a huge amount of guilt. I was sad that I wouldn’t be with my family on Christmas, that I wouldn’t get to see them open presents or make Christmas dinner with my mom. I was upset that I wouldn’t see my friends from high school and that traditions that have been built upon year after year would be missed.

So, in order to make LA feel more like home, and start some new traditions, Bob and I are combining some of his favorite holiday rituals from Nashville with some of mine from St. Augustine to start our own new ones.

Maybe this is the start of making our LA apartment feel more like home.

So, this past Sunday night, I invited a bunch of people over to our house for a pie party. Some people I had known since college, some I have met here in Los Angeles and others I met through the travel community and twitter. I asked everyone to bring their favorite pie and we’d have wine and cheese before the big pie tasting.

Besides great food, bringing your favorite pie tells a lot about yourself and your history.

Bob baked his mother’s tart apple pie and spent the better half of Sunday cutting each apple into the tiniest of slices. Rebecca, from Travels at 88mph, said the first thing that came to her mind when she received the pie party invite was Australian meat pies, from when she lived in OZ- so she brought homemade individual sized meat pies. My other friend Rebecca brought her grandmother’s chocolate pie- and she was so proud of herself for being able to make it!

Each pie told a story.

After talking with my mom for a couple weeks about the idea for the pie party, she sent me a ton of different recipes, each one topping the next. We decided on a pumpkin cheesecake pie and even though she wasn’t here to taste it, I felt a little closer to her since we spent so much time planning together, albeit over the phone, but still.

Between the 10 people who came, we didn’t have one repeat pie- not one, even though I swore we’d have multiple pumpkins or apple pies- and all of them were so delicious.

I think the biggest lesson I learned from this weekend and the pie party was that the time you spend with friends and family is invaluable. Whether or not you are with them during the holidays, you can create special memories and have a really great time doing it!

For other people who won’t be home for the holidays and are missing their families this time of year, we put together a short list of things to do to help you feel more at home. If you have any suggestions, add them to the list!

4 ways to celebrate hometown traditions, no matter where you are in the world:

1.) create a new tradition and celebrate it fully- like the pie party or a gingerbread house decorating party.

2.) recreate an experience that you did at home: cook the same foods for breakfast, open one present on Christmas Eve, go ice skating

3.) have an “orphan” thanksgiving or christmas: if you are spending the holidays in a foreign city or in a hostel, try getting a group together and cook a holiday meal. tell everyone what you are thankful for or memories from your favorite holiday to make you feel closer to your relatives and loved ones.

4.) call or Skype with your family or close friends on the actual day. And, be happy. No one likes to think you are sad during the holidays.

Are you going “home” for the holidays? Want to be invited to the next pie party?! The more the merrier!