Girls’ Night Out – Dirty Santa Scarf & Ornament Exchange

Last Thursday evening my best girlfriends and I gathered together for an evening of good food, delicious drinks, and our 7th annual scarf and ornament exchange.  It’s something that we all look forward to every year.     

It actually started out as an ornament exchange, but several years back (when scarves became wildly popular) we decided to throw a scarf exchange in the mix as well, and now that’s my favorite part!  #AllHailTheScarfQueen  #ThatsMe 

In the past, we have had the party at someone’s house as we have a really big group of girls, but throughout the years many of our girlfriends (sadly) moved away, and there aren’t near as many of us in town as there used to be.   

This year we decided to have the party at a restaurant so nobody had to worry about hosting, cleaning up, making food, etc.  We all have small kids now, and #AintNobodyGotTimeFoDat during this time of year, so we just decided to have it at Bonefish and let them do all of the cooking for us.  :o)

We started the evening with their delicious bread and herb infused olive oil and some pre-dinner cocktails.   

You guys.  If you haven’t tried the Winter White Cosmopolitan, then drop what you’re doing, grab a designated driver, and go get hammered have a couple.   

I don’t usually do liquor too often (unless it’s a margarita) because I’m typically a wine girl (especially when I’m having a steak), but the waitress promised me that I would not be disappointed.  Boy, was that an understatement!  It was cool, crisp, cranberry and lime goodness, and I had not one, but two.  I would have really liked a third, but my designated driver was at home keeping watch over our sleeping babes, and he would have killed me if I had called and asked him to awaken the sleeping angels just to come pick my sorry butt up from a girls’ night out.  #LetsFaceItWereNot25Anymore

Anywho, after cocktails, we ordered our entrees – filet mignon, garlic whipped potatoes, and a Caesar salad for me – and then we filled the rest of the dinner with good conversation.  

Once dinner was over, it was time for the main event – Dirty Santa!  Have you guys ever played Dirty Santa before?   

It’s really simple.  Everyone brings a wrapped, unlabeled gift and everyone draws a number.  Whoever gets number one picks a gift, unwraps it, shows it to everyone, and then whoever gets number two can either steal the gift from number one or they can pick a new one from the pile.  This continues until everyone has taken their turn.  At the end, whoever drew number one can steal anything from anybody.  It gets downright dirty and it’s so much fun, and we had a blast doing it!  Warning, be sure to set a limit for how many times a gift can be stolen, otherwise the game could go on all night long.  

We played once for ornaments, and then we played again for scarves and everyone went home with something new and super cute!  Here are my beauties:

We had a blast and it was a wonderful evening!  Words cannot explain how much I love these ladies. 

And just for fun, here are some pictures from our past ornament and scarf exchanges!  Oh what fun!

2009 - Our very first Dirty Santa Ornament Exchange hosted by my friend Lauren at her apartment



2010 - Hosted at my house, for some reason we didn't take one big group pic... instead we split up - brunettes here...

2010 - ... and blondes here.  And I was about ten weeks preggo with Jacob... and you can see through my dress  :o)

2011 - at my house... maybe our biggest group to date!  The more, the merrier!

2013 - at my house, after several of our girlfriends moved away.  One to Alaska, one to San Fran, & one to WA state. :o(

2013 - And four out of the six of us were pregnant!  (Me with Olivia)

2013 - (left to right) Due in December, due in February, due in late April, due in early April... and now they're all here and they're all sweet friends!
 

*Linking up with The Newly, Simple Luxury, and Keepin' Up With the Smiths for Bits of Cheer and Journey of Doing, P!inky Persistence, and Katie Elizabeth for Countdown to Christmas