Girlfriend Charity Party And A Thank You

I thought I would share a few little preps I am doing for my annual Girlfriend Charity Christmas Party.

A little background.  About 8 years ago I started this party to gather all my girlfriends together for a night of sharing our love for each other and the wonderful friendships we share.  Christmas seemed the perfect time to have this gathering.  A night for fun, eating, laughing and sharing of gifts etc.

This party started out as just my close girlfriend group and then it expanded over the years to some of my girlfriends bringing their besties to the party and now my two daughter's are bringing thier bff's.  So our small girlfriend group has expanded and has become such a fun group of women.

I do a theme each year for the party.  We all wear our most comfy pj's and slippers.  Why???? well because you need to be comfy for eating, drinking and laughing!!!!

Best Part of This Party:
  Each girl brings an exchange gift where  some or most of the proceeds of buying this gift go to benefit a favorite charity.  It amazes me each year the beautiful and thoughtful gifts each girl will bring to the exchange.  Everyone always has a great story of why they chose the gift and the particular charity. Very touching.

A while back I shared with you what my girlfriend exchange gift for this year will be.  You can see that post here.

Every year I try to come up with a cute gift bag that each girl will get to take home all the goodies from the party.

This year I found the cutest bag at Tattered Tiques Christmas Open House.  They took  large white bags and added a cute christmas truck stamp on each bag for the open house. 

 I asked the girls if they would make up some of these for my party.  So they did and then I did a little embellishing to them too.  I always add some take home favors in each bag.

Here is what I did:

This is the shopping bag I got from the girls at Tattered Tiques.  Good size white paper bag with the cute stamped truck.

Yep! gotta love this stamp pattern.

Got some red jingle bells from Michaels.

Pretty checked ribbon and large clear plastic bags.

Found these adorable gift tags at Hobby Lobby.  $1.99 with half off Christmas for a bag of 12.  Score!

Tied off the gift tags and bells with bakers twine to the handle of the bags.

These bags are cute and good size for each girl to take home all their goodies and the gift from the exchange.

I got each girl the Oprah Christmas Favorite Magazine.  Remember when she had her TV show, the Favorite Show in particular where she gave away all those wonderful gifts.  She continues this with her Christmas edition magazine and highlights great gifts. There is also a chance in this magazine to win fabulous gifts.  Gotta love what Oprah started here with her favorite gifts and giveaways.

It is just a fun favor to give each of the girls in their bag.  Tied the magazine off in the clear bags with ribbon and a candy cane.

Here it is already for each girl to have at the party.

 One thing checked off the list as I prepare for the party.

I have 17 besties coming to the party this year.  I just love that my daughters have joined my group and have their friends joining in now.  It is a great night of friendship sharing.


It is such a fun night to get everyone together to share our love of friendship, eat, drink, laugh and play fun games.  I do lots of fun prizes.  A prize for the cutes Christmas PJ's this year and cutest slippers worn.  Have prizes for the games we play too.

Stay tuned as I show you more items I am preparing for this party.
Have a great start to the new week.
Kris

*****Thank You and Big Hugs ******

A special thank you to Dore of Burlap Luxe.  I finally have gotten one of Dore's beautiful heartful art pieces for my home.  If you have ever been to Dore's Etsy  or Blog you will see some of the beautiful art work she creates and sells.  I saw this French Hen House that she created last week on her Etsy Site and my heart beat was just a little faster as I looked at this beautiful piece.  I  thought how wonderful that piece would be in my French Country Kitchen.

So on the shelf in my kitchen it went.  Look at those sweet chippy doors and the cute detail in the banner.  This french chick that is right outside her hen house has it so good.

The attention to detail that Dore uses in all her lovely pieces is amazing.  Are those arched chippy doors not the sweetest?  Oh and that cute french banner.  Little Countess d'Erouville has a beautiful French Cottage of her own.  So happy to have this sweet little vignette on my shelf in my french farm house kitchen.

Dore also gifted me one of her special french birds from her collection.

Dore I love my new french bird added to my winter vintage garden mantel.
Thank you sweet friend.  I am swooning over my beautiful treasures created by you.
My little Countess just makes me smile every morning when I see her on the shelf in the kitchen.
Hugs and Kisses attached with a big Thank you.