Ornament Swap

There are a lot of themed parties this time of year that involve gift giving and merriment. Activities like Secret Santa, white elephant and scarf exchanges all bring friends together to celebrate the holidays. My friends and I did an ornament exchange on Tuesday for the first time. The reason it was the first time is because it's the first time we've all lived in the same town since freshman year of high school. I hosted lunch on Tuesday, and to make it easy, everyone brought their own food. Though I didn't cook, I did buy some christmas cookies from United (my favorite) and made our dining room table table as fun and festive as I could in about 10 minutes.

Since two of us had to go back to work, we began the ornament exchange pretty quickly after eating. My friend Katie had done this before, so she was the one who drew names for everyone a few weeks ago. It was actually perfect. Everyone's gifts were so personalized, and we all had incredible luck finding unique ornaments that fit the personalities of our respective person. Mine is so wonderful and cute and I wish I had a tree this year to hang it on. After we all opened our presents, we spent a few more minutes chatting about Christmas plans and when we were going to get together after the holidays. In a very "life comes full circle" sort of way, it's weird to think that the four of us have been friends since elementary school. And here we are, almost two decades later, living in Abilene and exchanging ornaments as good friends. I'm so grateful to have them here, and for the Christmas season that seems to bring out the magic in every little thing.

Am I right? So cute!