Hi girlfriends! Can I just tell you that a few weeks ago, I had the BEST weekend ever with some of my long-time girlfriends? We had such a blast, and we managed to do it without any heavy planning, crazy spending, or being stressed out about anything.
My girls Nancy, Marie, Elizabeth, Patricia, Melinda, and Ardice all came to Vegas for our traditional get together…which we call: our Hag Bag Weekend. They flew in from all over Canada, Mexico, etc. to make it, and I was so appreciative. I am incredibly fortunate to have such amazing ladies in my life, and for so long!
The First Hag Bag weekend started back when the girls and I were working for Redken in our late teens and early 20’s. We’d always run into each other traveling and we really liked each other. So, from a very young age we started getting together and having “girlfriend time”, which I think Marie dubbed “Hag Bag Weekends”. We have since added a few girls to our bunch, and we always have such a fantastic time together. We traditionally go shopping for great sales, eat our favorite snacks (like chocolate and potato chips), watch a chick flick with face masks on, and in the past have said NO MEN ALLOWED. This year, since it was held at my house…we made Chris an honorary member, as he was so thoughtful and always made sure we had everything we needed. Serving the girls a glass of champagne in our driveway when they arrived went a long way.
I kicked off the girl’s arrival with a “DIVA” sign on my front door (which only cost me $0.50 at Michael’s), a welcome table, and few little gifts, using some feminine and fun pieces I picked up on sale and saved throughout the year.
I love to have gifts or small favors on the bed when family and friends arrive. For the “Hag Bags”, I put together some snacks and girly things that had everyone smiling.
I grabbed some almonds, trail mix, and raisins from my own pantry so they’d have some snacks. Then, I added some tissue, a few candies, and some chocolate scented candles I’d picked up for a STEAL a few weeks earlier. We clipped them up with some bright “diva glasses” and set them out for everyone’s arrival.
I also set up a little “welcome table” for when the girls came in from the airport, complete with girlfriend wine glasses, champagne bubbles, some “Viva Las Vegas” water bottles, a complete Hag Bag 2013 Agenda, and another small gift I whipped up. I had bought these great kits from Pier One with shower gel, lotion, and mini bath sponges a year ago on sale for under $1.50! Stocking up on great items on sale earlier in the year helped me tremendously. I was even able to find these bright red “silly straws” with lips on them! So fun!
Chris helped me type up an agenda for the girls, and boy did we have a busy and awesome weekend together! Everything from Girl’s Night In, Girl’s Night OUT to see Menopause the Musical, shopping, garage sale-ing, and more.
Some “Event Basics” that really helped me create the “Best Hag Bag Weekend Ever”:
I created a new “Girlfriend’s Box”. It now contains:
– 8 girlfriend wine glasses, pictured above
– misc. leftover favor items
– that colorful DIVA sign from Michael’s
– pink dress invites that dressed up the welcome areas and itinerary
– left over girlfriend napkins
– sample itinerary
My stress-free action plan:
- When I knew I was hosting Hag Bag 2013, I started my “Girlfriend Box” a few months ago, so as I saw small inexpensive items, I picked them up and in the box they went! The day before we had just arrived from the BlogHer conference – and all I had to do was take out all the goodies on hand and organize special touches in a few areas.
- Having the fridge stocked with simple breakfast food and snacks, plus encouraging house guests to help themselves not only saves the hostess time, but takes the guess work out of when people are hungry and want to nibble. Jobbing out the spaghetti sauce to Nancy (who by the way makes the best pasta dinner EVER), and having a girlfriend grocery store outing , kept us stocked up on everyone’s favorites. Part of the fun was everyone pitching in together. It felt old times with treasured friends!
Here we are on our Girl’s Night Out to see Menopause The Musical, with 4 members of the cast!
Sometimes we’ll bring small gifts for each other, other times some will bring clothes or purses or scarves to swap. It’s never been about spending money, but more about spending quality time with one another. This year, Marie and Patricia even surprised me with items they had found at a garage sale that I could use for the OCC packing party, and we ended up all going out together on a garage sale mission to pick up tons more. It was such a moving and thoughtful thing for my friends to do with me, it almost made me cry.
After everyone left, we all started emailing back and forth to share our favorite moments, thank each other, and make plans for the next Hag Bag! One great thing that Patricia sent to all of us was this beautiful poem. I’m unsure of the original author, but we all agreed that it summed up our feelings for one another:
“People come into our life disguised as angels, and sometimes angels come into our life disguised as people.
All it takes are open eyes and ears and the willingness to see miracles.
They are everywhere.
Having friends that inspire us to rise to higher and greater levels is an awesome gift.
Surround yourself with people that inspire you to do better and inspire your friends as well.
It is a profound truth that the people we spend time with shape the path that we travel.”
Do you have any friends in your life like the Hag Bags? What traditions do you share together?
