Month of Friendship -  30 Days, 30 Ways to celebrate your Girlfriends

It’s September 1, aka: the first day of better friendships for you, the beginning of new connections, the day that begins the month where girlfriends kinda sneak up the priority chain to make your friendships better and stronger.

It’s the Month of Friendship here at Girlfriendology and we’re celebrating with 30 days and 30 ways to be a better friend and celebrate those relationships that make us healthier, happier, less stressed, live longer and feel more beautiful – girlfriends!

Day 1: Throw a Girlfriend Dinner Party

Tonight the girls in the photo will gather at Jill’s house. We’ll bring a typically-odd selection of appetizers, desserts and whatever we could grab on the way out the door – but it will all be tasty and perfect for our gathering. We’ll catch up on Jill’s trip to Haiti, find out how Lauren’s pregnancy is going, get updates on jobs and families, and just share our lives. Hugs, laughter and wine will generously flow and I’m pretty sure the neighbors will know this girlfriend dinner is underway!

While the dinner tonight isn’t specifically a ‘Month of Friendship’ celebration, unofficially it is. We don’t need a formal excuse or ‘holiday’ to connect and share. We shouldn’t have to wait until a designated day/month to ‘break bread’ with girlfriends, we just need to find the time and make a plan. Our girlfriend group hasn’t gathered in too long so the timing is perfect – as it always is when friends get together.

So, today’s Friendship Month recommendation/way to celebrate friendship is to host a dinner party for your girlfriends.

Invite the amazing women who help you through life to a dinner at your home or favorite restaurant. Make the dinner extra special with:

• A personalized card with friendship quote for each friend or with a photo of you and your friend(s) (or frame it as a gift).
• A small gift or gift bag that you’ve made for your friends (I filled a little bag with things from the dollar store a couple years ago for National Women’s Friendship month – like a journal and frame that I personalized, and earrings that I made for each friend).
• A poem that you’ve written or a song that you can play that reminds you of them and how much their friendship is to you.
• A CD that you’ve created from friendship songs – like ‘For Good’ from Wicked, ‘You’ve got a Friend‘ by Carole King, ‘Thank You for being a Friend‘ from the Golden Girls, ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me‘ from ToyStory/Randy Newman and ‘Lean on Me‘ by Bill Withers.
• Bring a camera to capture the smiles. Then frame these or put into mini scrapbooks later as a girlfriend gift and reminder of your friendship and this fun girlfriend dinner party.
• A little speech to express your girlfriend gratitude. Tell each friend something you love about her, why her friendship is so important to you, how she has made your life better by being your friend.

Consciously stop during the evening and look at each friend.

Recognize the wonderful women before you – how each one adds to your life, the lessons you’ve learned from/with them, the memories you share, the fun moments to come. Think about how different your life would be without them in it, how they make you feel when you hear their voice and see their smiles, how you feel accepted and beautiful in their presence. Restore your commitment to stay in touch with each other a little better. Make plans to do this again – and set the date.

Celebrate this month of friendship by being a better friend. It’s going to be a great month girlfriends.

(And see you tonight girlfriends! Can’t wait to catch up!)

Tags: friendship month, girlfriend dinner, girlfriend dinner party, girlfriend get together, girlfriend group, GNO, month of friendship

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Be a Better FRIEND. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.