favorite things party 2015

I don’t mean to say I’m Oprah, but I give away some favorite things every year and it’s just pretty awesome all around.

Quick recap if you’re new here: on the first Thursday of every month, I hang out with eight girls I graduated high school with. I have known some of them since kindergarten. We started this monthly meetup in early 2013 and as we grow and laugh together, those girls mean more to me than I ever thought possible. (I’ve written about how to start your own girls club if this setup sounds good to you.) They probably don’t feel the same way about me because I make them do weird things like write love notes to each other and our annual Christmas favorite things party, but they haven’t kicked me out yet, so I have that going for me.

This year was our third favorite things party. Everyone picks one thing they love that they think everyone else would enjoy and then they buy eight of them, one for each of us. Then we throw ourselves a fancy little Christmas party with lots of good food and open presents. We take turns explaining why we picked the gift or what it means to us and then we all get to open the surprise.

It’s my favorite Christmas event. Plus, these girls give great gifts. Sorry, Chris Graham and my extended family, there’s just no competition.

Two reasons I’m sharing this: 1.) so you can get some last-minute gift ideas if you’ve waited until the last second to Christmas shop. That would totally stress me out, but I know for some of you, that’s your thing. Whatever. You do you. And 2.) so you can see how awesome it is and start gathering a group for your own favorite things party next year. (I love that I have readers email me or tweet me to say they are doing their own parties now. Friend time is the best. Okay, it’s the best in small bursts, like once a month. I’m an introvert so don’t get too carried away with the idea.)

We got running socks from Heather. She got us socks last Christmas because it was the year she started running and it changed her life. We got so excited over cool-looking socks that she did it again. And we got just as excited this year. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. (She also got us some yummy lip gloss from Bath and Body Works that smells like mint. It freshens your breath and my kids try to eat it, of course.)

Jennifer made us custom Christmas ornaments to commemorate all the beer we’ve consumed together. Except we don’t actually drink beer when we get together. But the personalize ornament idea is pretty awesome.

You know what thirty-something women love? Coloring books. Jessi got us beautiful coloring books and fancy colored pencils. She said they’re awesome for relaxing and de-stressing and we all thought that sounded magical.

Krissy has a crafty friend who makes hand-crafted jewelry and was just featured in a local magazine so she placed a necklace order for us. My motto is you can never have enough jewelry so this worked out well for me.

We all know my love of all things chocolate by now so that my friend Jessica got us Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups is the best thing ever. She said she hides them in her cabinet and eats one or two when she really needs some chocolate. I thought that was a cute idea and then I came home and ate all of them the next day. But that’s nice she likes to save them, good for her.

Poo-Pourri! I’m sure you know someone who uses this and it just makes me laugh so much because my friend Melissa is so discreet and modest about bathroom stuff. I don’t have that discretion gene, but I still enjoy this product so much if for no other reason than it makes me giggle. If you’re completely unfamiliar with it, it helps take the smell away from your bathroom business. If you need more details, click the link because that’s all I’ve got for you.

Our friend Emily said she has started journaling a lot this year so she got everyone a cute notebook, some colored pens, and a candle. I’m always down when someone says to write something, and new pens are my love language.

Amber loves to bake so she made delicious pumpkin rolls from scratch that I imagine took about 15 hours total to complete. I’m not a big fan of pumpkin, but I have a husband who is. I would show you a picture of it, but it no longer exists. Use your imagination. It was (apparently) good. She also got us all framed pictures of the group so we can stare at each other’s ugly faces all year long. How sweet.

Oh, and me! I spilled the beans on what I was giving months ago after I read a book I wanted all my friends to have too. Nobody’s Cuter than You by Melanie Shankle had so many great themes about loyalty, friendship, and growing older with great girls around you, that I only made it half way through before I knew it was my gift for December. It’s not included in the pictures above because I loaned someone my copy and then gave away eight at our party so I don’t have one right now. But if you have a best friend or two that you love fiercely and you don’t even know where to start because everything seems just-not-right, I would say order this book from Amazon Prime real quick and you’ll be all set.

So that’s the run down; you’ve still got a few days left to get your presents in order before the big day and if you’re still struggling for ideas, I hope you found at least one thing you could use (and really, who couldn’t use some Poo-Pourri??!). Also, it’s never too early to start planning your favorite things party for 2016.

(If none of these gift ideas work for you, check out 2014’s or 2013’s favorite things party for other great ideas!)