Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens

bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

these are a few of my favorite things…

Favorite things.  We all have them.  And let’s be honest, whether you were an Oprah lover or not, the best show of every season was always the “Oprah’s Favorite Things” show.  She would get crazy sharing her favorite things with everyone in the audience that day! Egyptian cotton sheets, cashmere sweaters, Hermes scarves, Apple Bottom jeans, and I really think I remember her giving everyone a car once too!  There is just something fun about sharing the things you love with the people you love.

My friend Julie told me about this thing that she and her girlfriends have done for years that they call, “Favorite Things.”  It sounded so fun that 5 of my closest girlfriends and I decided to do it together this year and make it an annual tradition.

The idea is that you gather a handful of your friends and all bring some of your favorite things, one for each other person.  There were 6 of us, so I bought 5 of each thing I gave.  The favorite things can be ANYTHING.  There’s no price range or limitation (just whatever each person is comfortable with doing), you can do as many or as few things as you like, and mostly just have fun with it!  Julie told me over the years the favorite things she’s gotten have ranged from a favorite chapstick, toothbrush, O-Cello sponge, art print, monogrammed tray, and the list goes on.  The possibilities are endless!

And as many of you know, after years of close friendship, there has been a fair amount of rough stuff that this group of gals and I have walked through together this year… from the death of one of our closest friends, Melissa, to our church experiencing major transition which deeply affected us all, to births of babies, loss of jobs…it’s been a major year for us.  And we just decided it was time to celebrate something together, to celebrate one another, and the fact that as hard as it’s been this year, we’ve made it through.

So I booked a couple of rooms at our fabulous Allume hotel, The Hyatt Regency Greenville, and we spent nearly 24 hours together for a little stay-cation.  We kicked off the afternoon just puttering around and doing a little Christmas shopping, and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner together!  (There is just something super fun about getting ready with a bunch of girlfriends too…trying each other’s makeup, learning how to use the curling iron just so, and putting together outfits…it’s just fun, and not something a bunch of moms have the chance to do nearly as much as most of us could use the break. My pictures aren’t great…so bear with them!)

After getting ready, we headed out for dinner and then grabbed dessert from another place to bring back to the hotel and enjoy in our jammies! (I’m totally doing an Advocare 24 day challenge right now, but I straight up cheated the whole night…super special occasion!)

And then we got down to eating dessert and sharing our favorite things!  It was seriously such fun.  Scoot over Oprah…I’m betting women across the world are gonna get in on this train now!

We put our names on paper and drew to determine the order.  I was picked first, so I handed out my gifts which I had the best time just wrapping!  Check out the fun pile of presents…

I know you’re dying to know what our “favorite things” list included!  My first one was a baggie of my favorite sugar cookies (recipe included.)

I also wrapped my favorite toothpaste (Aquafresh Extreme Clean), and my favorite dry shampoo (Suave Keratin in the gold bottle…$3.)  But my most favorite Favorite things are my Goody Goody Bon Bon slippers….seriously, I cannot get enough of them, and my friends couldn’t either!  Squeals may have been heard around the world.  Can’t believe I forgot to bring my pair with me! Doesn’t that lone bare foot look so sad?!

Then the rest of the girls went…and it was such a hilarious variety!  I’ll show you a picture and do my best to list everything!

• Fuzziest socks ever
• Glass serving carafe
• Body Shop body butter
• Aerie underwear
• Bvulgari soap
• Wet n’ wild lipstick
• purple nail polish
• salted caramels and salted caramel mocha
• button sized earrings
• bird picture made from one of our friend Melissa’s old shirts (she loved birds and we loved her.)
• mini prophetic painting for each of us
• wooden cutting board with changeable plastic mats that nestle inside for different foods
• teeny tiny gold cross necklace
• golden bird ornament for “hope”
• individualized prints our friend made because the saying reminds her of us: “She’s whiskey in a teacup.”

I fear that I’m leaving something out!  It was such a blast!  Julie said that among her friends, they’ve done a huge variety of things over the years too.  It’s so fun too because as I wear or use these things, it reminds me of some of the special people in my life.  I’m thinking it’s the kind of thing that long-standing traditions are made of!

Anyhow…just hysterical and fun and creative!  I liked the idea so much that my family is doing it this year as well.  My Hubs is buying his favorite things for the guys (dads, brothers, brother-in-laws) and I’m getting my favorite things for the girls (moms, sisters, sis-in-laws.)  Our kids are picking some of their favorite things for cousins as well!  It’s just a fun way to spice up the gifting!

Just had to share….too fun not to!  So grateful for this handful of friends who have walked through fire together over the past 6 years.  Truly, grateful for even more friends in my life than just these…honestly, as much as this past year has brought in the way of hard, it’s sure made me love the people in my life even more.