Do the Holidays make you miss a special girlfriend? Are you sad, lonely or just wish you were ‘Christmas-ing’ with an old friend?

Some people come into our lives & quickly go.  Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts & we are never, ever the same.

Flavia Weedn

We’re celebrating 12 Days of Friendship this December as we look at the ‘gift of girlfriendship.’ Today’s gift might not seem like a ‘gift’ but it is. Sometimes, for a wide variety of reasons, girlfriends are no longer in our lives. We’re looking at the not-so-Happy-Holidays – missing our friends.

The holidays can be blue, lonely, sad, even depressing – especially if we’re missing friends like my dear friend Dana shown here. (We lost Dana to breast cancer two years ago December 23rd. Here’s our tribute to her and Elizabeth Edwards – both great women who fought cancer bravely. Also, these ways we can remember and honor our friends, like Dana, who are no longer with us.)

Yes, the holidays can be sad, lonely, even painful when we’re missing a friend(s) – but at least we had that friend, right? At least they were part of our life for the amount of time we shared and hopefully we have happy memories, learned great life lessons together and celebrated friendship while we were together. At least we have their memories to remind us of them and the times we shared. (I shared some memories of another great girlfriend, Holly and how memories of her still make me smile!)

On this ninth day of celebrating friendship, during this Holiday / Christmas / Hanukkah season, let’s look back on the friends who are no longer actively in our lives, and let’s say a word of thanks for them – for the joy and laughter they shared, for the ways they changed us and for the sadness of missing them – that we might appreciate the time we have with the wonderful women who are still in our lives and are yet to come!

To Dana and Holly, to the friends we’ve lost along the way for whatever reason, for the beautiful BFFs who still bless our days … let’s feel some girlfriend gratitude. Let’s celebrate the friends who leave an impression on our lives. Let’s celebrate the way they touched our lives for whatever amount of time we had together. And … let’s be the kind of friend you’d love to have!

And, come back for the next eight days as we look at more of the great gifts of friendship.

• Day 1: Knowing friends are there for you
• Day 2: Celebrating our Cheerleader/Supportive Girlfriends
• Day 3: Girlfriend Traditions
• Day 4: The Gift of Memories with Friends
• Day 5: The Gift of Forgiveness
• Day 6: Having Things in Common
• Day 7: Sharing Adventures Together
• Day 8: The Gift of Laughter
  

More Fun Stuff:

• Check out these 25 Girlfriend Gifts under $25
• Sign up for our Newsletter & get FREE eBook (Plus entered in contest to win $25 Starbucks gift cards)
• Daily Girlfriend Gifts and SHOES!

Tags: 12 days of Christmas, 12 days of friendship, Christmas, Friends, friendship, Girlfriend Gifts, girlfriends, Hanukkah, lonely, missing friend, sad holidays

This entry was posted on Monday, December 26th, 2011 at 6:15 pm and is filed under Be a Better FRIEND, FUN Stuff we share with Girlfriends. 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.