My Favorite Things Party – Pennies ‘n Grace

I think one of my greatest joys is building relationships with others. I guess there is something splendid about watching walls come crashing down as we encourage and uplift one another with the daily burdens we bear. What a divine opportunity we have in opening our hearts and our homes to all kinds. I had the joy and privilege to host a “My favorite Things party” for the ladies in our church. I had so much fun in preparing this activity and was thrilled at the response from our dear ladies within our little country church. I believe this activity will become one of our annual events that we all look forward to. They welcomed strangers into their space and loved them tightly for Jesus allowing incredible opportunities for future outreach.

These parties can and have been done a million different ways, but I’m going to just share how we did it this time.

I printed out flyers for all the ladies to know exactly what the activity was and rules to go by. I also created an event in Facebook to help make sure I could see how many planned to attend. Many parties do different price values or number of gifts, but I had each lady bring 3 of the same gifts not costing more than $5 each. I didn’t want to burden anyone with finances, but figured one could do lots with $5. I absolutely loved how our ladies came through in this way. There were fantastic gifts brought. I wish I had gotten lots more pictures, but next year I will be sure to have another lady snapping pictures throughout the party.

And, you know me…I love to decorate, so I had a blast preparing for our big debut.

I found 3 scratched up cute metal chalkboards from Hobby Lobby. I paid $2 each for them (originally $8.99), brought them home, and repainted them with chalkboard paint I had in my craft stash. I threw in a package of white chalk, and a cute pumpkin nutmeg candle I found on after Christmas clearance.

When each lady arrived, they put their 3 gifts on the gift table and placed their name on 3 cards and put them in my grab bag. Little girls gifts went into a separate wire basket.

An 8 foot table just fit in my kitchen so it was sort of out of the way and didn’t block traffic anymore in my little house. Don’t ask if I could open my fridge. 😏

And, don’t ever think your home is too small to host fun events. I honestly thought we would have between 12-15 ladies interested. As I started receiving rsvps, I quickly realized I could very well expect several more. So, I had to get creative with moving furniture and storing it all somewhere. So, our showers housed several tables and other things that I needed out of the way for the evening.

We made seating available for 28 people and used all but 2 of them!

I had ten fun gifts for door-prizes. They included a few of my favorites….almond bark for baking, homemade taco seasoning and recipe, candle melts, Candle, Wooden art saying #momlife, Mrs. Meyers All-purpose cleaner, bath bomb, Hand soap, Coloring verse set, and a pretty travel coffee cup.

I made my favorite Jello punch and had a big canister of ice water for the beverage table.

I made mini eclair cakes, fruit pizza, and pumpkin spice cookies for our dessert bar.

Each lady brought their favorite finger food to pass. And, Wow! They definitely covered the food tables, and we had an amazing spread of yummy treats.

Our gift table housed 78 beautiful gifts. So many creative gifts were included in this year’s gifts…candles, calgon bubble bath, cute slipper socks, coloring books, candles, candle melt plugins, bracelets, color street nails, flowers, chocolate, makeup, adorable wooden signs, chalkboards, lotion, metal signs, and so many other things.

I had each ladies name on a piece of paper. I chose one slip of paper and my girls would go to the kitchen and grab that ladies 3 gifts she brought. I would then choose 3 names from the brown grab bag and those three ladies would get those gifts. It worked out perfectly. I did occasionally throw names back into the bag if I had just chosen that ladies name. That way their receiving gifts was spread out throughout the exchange.

We played one game that allowed us to get to know each other a bit more by answering questions on our favorite: cereal, childhood memory, snack, candle scent, perfume, toilet paper, hymn, family tradition, clothing store, and more. For a few of them if they had the same favorite as myself I’d give them a door prize. Ladies don’t turn away extra gifts! 😘

Before we headed home, I took the time to give a short challenge on one of my favorite things I am in Christ—Secure. We talked about Psalm 23 and the truth and hope we have knowing that we are secure in Christ alone. Each lady was able to take a mini wooden block home that I had made for them to remember our night and the security that we can look to daily.

“My Favorite Things Party” just made it to the top of the list as an annual event in our home. The ladies thoroughly enjoyed it, and I can’t wait to start planning for next year.

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