7 New Things You Should Do With Your Girlfriends This Year
Encourage them to bring a bottle of sparkling wine each. Get day drunk, talk about your awesome projects and experiences, and eat pastries. It's the perfect afternoon.
1. Read a book together.
The worst feeling when you’ve just finished a great book is realizing that there is no one around to listen to you complain about the protagonist, or debate the ending. Get a group of girlfriends together and read something that you’ve all been thinking of, and then you’ll never be alone with your book feelings again!
(Can I recommend, for your first book, This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper? It’s a great book by a great writer, and the IMDB for the upcoming adaptation is bananaaaaaas. You’ll want to prepare.)
2. Have a business champagne brunch.
Get a group of girls together who are passionate, driven, and need to meet one another. Create a brunch spread with proscuitto wrapped around melon and sprinkled with rose sea salt, and other such bougie foods. Encourage them to bring a bottle of sparkling wine each. Get day drunk, talk about your awesome projects and experiences, and eat pastries. It’s the perfect afternoon.
3. Say “I love you.”
There is nothing strange about saying you love your girlfriends. If you love someone, if they make your life wonderful and meaningful and joyous, the worst thing you can do is keep that from them. There is no reason that a call with a close girlfriend can’t end with the same “love you” as your relationship calls. (And hearing it, in a very different way, still gives butterflies. Loving and being loved is great!)
4. Have a clothing exchange cocktail party.
Everyone has clothes that they are no longer wearing — or have never worn — which are still very much cute. The best way to deal with this scenario is by inviting a whole bunch of girlfriends over and encouraging them to bring their stuff, serving up nice drinks, and having everyone get a little buzzed while doing a mini fashion show in the living room for one another. Bonus points if you all go out that night in your newly acquired stuff.
5. Write long letters.
Not too long ago, I received a letter from a girlfriend in the mail from across the ocean, and it was one of the greatest feelings ever! Even if it’s just an email, though, taking the time to write everything out and fill them in on all the details is one of the greatest things you can do in a friendship. When they get to settle in with a cup of tea and read it, it’s like you’ve written a little book just for them to read, and every girl should get that once in a while.
6. Teach one another your favorite dishes.
If you have that one dish that everyone asks you about when you make it, or even just one thing that you’ve always known how to put together but only ever make for yourself, you need to share it. Everyone should be giving one another their best recipes, because if food is really good, it’s made infinitely better by being shared. You can schedule a once-weekly little “class” where you take turns showing the recipe, and you can even write them down into a little cookbook that everyone can get a copy of! (And plus, you get to eat a bunch of delicious food. Which is also great.)
7. Have “no boy talk” dates.
Just like those dinners out where everyone puts their phone in the middle, and the first to pick it up has to get the tab, boy-talk-less dates are the best. You all go out, have fun, and realize just how many interesting things there are to discuss in the world when you put a temporary moratorium on all the tedious relationship troubles you are experiencing. There is a time and a place to discuss boys, of course, but sometimes it’s nice to spend a whole night without having to think about them even once. Sometimes. 
