This last year was a busy one for me. With sharing health and wellness to the multitudes, training, learning and growing my time with dear friends was limited. So, I decided to do something about it by planning a FAVORITE THINGS party.
Some FAVORITE friends,
some FAVORITE snacks,
some FAVORITE products...
tied up together to create one incredibly fun package of a party!
Well, if you have been following me long, you know me... time to create some goodness for our gathering. I came up with a couple of games: a favorite things questionnaire and a Celebrity Favorite Foods matching game. I wanted to have a little added fun to keep the theme going throughout the night without the games consuming the evening. After all we needed our time to catch up on all that 2015 brought us.
The Favorite Things Questionnaire was fun. We filled them out, shuffled them and passed them back out. The person drawing made sure not to get their own and then one by one we read the questionnaire we had in hand. Then we would guess who it belonged to. As well as we knew each other we did learn a little about each person. It was fun to ask some of the why's behind the answers.
(ANSWERS - Angelina Jolie & kids: Crickets, Seinfeld: Peanut Butter, Betty White: Chips, Red Vines, Fries, out dogs, Taylor Swift - Cinnamon Crunch Cereal, Pop Tarts, Katy Perry: Mushrooms, Mariah Carey: Pizza, Scarlett Johansson: Buffalo Wings, Barack: Obama Chili, Selena Gomez: Pickles, Justin Bieber: Swedish Fish, Tom Hanks: Gyro / Japanese)
I had some inexpensive craft bags on hand.
Used some cute little packaging for snacks (another favorite)
Favorite plates. Aren't these BEAUTIFUL?
(these were gifts from our foreign exchange student from Finland in the '80's)
I made some healthy(ish) treats and some "I am not starting my fitness resolution yet so let's have one last homemade taco dip with Juanita's appetizer" not so healthy snack. Everyone brought one or two of their favorite snacks as well. We had the yummiest danish bleu cheese, marinated shrimp, meat and cheese platters, pb*j cookies, lemon bars....
all DELISH!
Then came the time for the BIG reveal where we shared our FAVORITE thing of 2015 that we were gifting to each person. There were no rules on this one outside of a price range of $15-20.
Looking for some great gift ideas? Look no further - we SCORED!
My give away was something that showed up in my BIRCHBOX this year. Stila HUGER than HUGE extreme lash duo. You can pick it up at nordstroms for $18 right now (usually$27).
Let me just say this.... this is the BEST MASCARA ever! I have tried a ton, and I mean a TON of different top line brands that claim to create the BIGGEST lash. Many that extend and build end up flaking or creating black shadows under my eyes. This mascara is the BOMBdiggity. The link above comes with a primer and the mascara. Just try it ladies!
My "loves everything ENGLISH" friend (who really needs to write a book or fifty...) brought these fun books. One is the Anti Journal which is SO FUN! I can't wait to dig in and start writing.
My "Super Sweet" friend brought cupcakes from a gourmet bakery. She had picked cupcakes with specific flavors for each one of us. I just loved how she made it extra sweet by thinking of what flavors she would buy for whom.
...and confession time. I gobbled both of them up before the nights end because you know... I mean really, they would have slightly hardened or crusted over had I waited. Wouldn't you agree that would be quite rude as the receiver? Yes, glad we agree... gobbling was in order.
Our "Techy Wonder Girl" friend brought us all iTunes cards. I LOVED this. Super creative and useful. Any thoughts on what I should buy with it folks?
And finally the last gift came from a friend who had an unforeseen health issue come up this year. One of the only things she could drink was tea, so she learned to LOVE tea. Recently she has gotten hooked on Teavana teas. This one is heavenly - Pineapple Kona Pop. YUM. Even my kiddos are asking for this tea. I found this gift extremely fitting because the two of us used to have a drinkey-dink club where we would go on a hunt once a week with our kiddos to find fun local non-alcoholic (making the claim because you notice I said with our kiddos) beverages to try around our community.
Guys, this was such a blast. I cannot tell you how nice it was to just BE with friends. Have a little theme to it but mainly just plain, good, friendship time. If my motto is going to be one thing this year it is to be purposeful. Sometimes we can make things so complicated with details that we lose the purpose. Keep it simple and meaningful.
Cheers to more GATHERINGS & FRIENDSHIP TIME in 2016!
-Simply Sublime
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