Another girlfriend year is coming to a close, so we wanted to look back and remember some of our favorite post of 2009. We’ve had some great ones this year! In fact, narrowing the list down to 10 favorites was tough, but we selected 5 party ideas and 5 articles that we thought represented the best of GirlfriendCelebrations this year. Read on and see if you agree, and let us know in the comments. You can also VOTE for your favorite GirlfriendCelebrations party idea of 2009 in our twtpoll in the left-hand column. If you missed any of these great posts, you may want to consider subscribing to our e-newsletter. That way you’ll never miss a minute of the celebration!

Party Ideas

1. Patio Crawl Tina says: “I like this because it’s hip to host at any age. It can be held virtually anywhere from a large subdivision to a small apartment complex. If you wanted to include the opposite sex, it wouldn’t too hard to modify. What a great way to celebrate the fall season! And last but not least…I secretly really, really, really want to host one of these ~ sounds like so much fun.”

2. Welcome-to-Town Cookie Party Tina says: “I love that you can host this for girls of all ages. It’s a unique twist on the old favorite cookie exchange. It’s a fun way to get the “chore” of seeing all your close friends and extended family without traveling from house to house during the time-crunched holiday season.”
3. Karaoke Girls Night Dawn says: “Classic GirlfriendCelebrations: Fun, easy, cheap, and unique. This is a great Japan-themed girls night to warm up a winter night by bringing out your inner diva.”
4. Good Scents Fragrance Party Dawn says: “I like this party not only because it is different, but also because it was developed in response to a reader request. And, it’s a collaborative effort. Several smart readers contributed suggestions.”
5. Guide to Swap Parties for Frugal Girls Nights After the book swap, accessory swap and fashion swap, what else can you trade with your girlfriends? Well, there’s more! Here’s a roundup of ways to play swap-o-rama with your gal pals.

Friendship Articles

6. Seven Steps to Better Girls Nights Great New Year reading, this article has all you need to know about making girlfriend time a priority and how to make the most of it.

8. Girlfriends Meet Mizrahi: Another real-life adventure, except this time it was the Girlfriends-in-Chief having the adventure meeting fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi. This story started and ended with girlfriends!

9. The Mighty Queens of Freeville: Q&A With Amy Dickinson Dawn says: “We love recommending good, girlfriendly books, and this was one of my favorite interviews of the year. Amy had a lot of great insights on friendship and on women’s relationships.”

10.  Top Ten Ways to Help a Girlfriend Get Well: A thoughtful post that offers concrete suggestions for brightening the day of a girlfriend who’s under the weather. We like to think that offering easy, inexpensive, yet effective ideas is one of the things we do best at GirlfriendCelebrations.

Special Thanks to Our Guests

While we (hopefully) have your attention, we’d also like to give a BIG thank you to all our fabulous guest posters and contributors this year. They made our site so much richer and we truly appreciate their time and talents: Christine Arylo, Melissa Mellott, Casey Wohl, Julie Bestry, Kami Gray, Carly Huegelmann, Brooke Jones, Irene Levine, Izzy Rose. Thank you! (If we have forgotten anyone, please let us know.)

Girlfriends, thanks for spending time with us this year! We wish you stronger friendships in 2010 and more fun celebrating them!  xoxo Dawn and Tina