Birthday Celebration Ideas for Women: How to Gather Well

Two of my sisters had birthday celebrations this month. I had the gift of getting to celebrate them in person in some pretty beautiful ways. Here are two birthday celebration ideas I love.

Gather Friends to Share Their Favorite Things

Years ago my sister Saydi came up with a birthday gathering idea and I love it. She gathers her favorite people and makes dinner for them all (she’s the best cook). She has her husband and kids serve up the meal while everyone shares one “favorite thing” they have come across that year. Whether a quote, a book, a thought.

I did something similar when I gathered with my sister-in-laws in Newport last spring and to this day it is one of the most meaningful ways I’ve found to connect on a deeper level. I love how it makes you think about things a little differently. And the avenue it gives to share some more sacred and sentimental thoughts than we normally get to share. I wrote a little synopsis of the favorite things my in-laws shared and still hold them close.

Anyway, I have always heard the best things about Saydi’s annual gathering and was so happy to finally be in town to celebrate with those amazing women she gathers.

It was such a beautiful night filled with all kinds of favorite things I want to hold on to. Here are a few of them:

• A talk from church about the beauty of uncertainty (I’m going to have to write about this one one day, it was incredibly insightful about how uncertainty isn’t necessarily a bad thing)
• A podcast series called “The Other Side“
• “Your life is whatever you say it is”
• “Lawless” lip gloss 🙂
• Be curious…”Man’s reach should exceed his grasp else what is a heaven for?”
• The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
• “To Those Enduring Trials with No End” by Jeffrey Bednar (so good!)
• The concept of “enoughness” and how to figure it out
• Rediscovering Eve by Rebecca Call

After dinner of course we had to float Saydi’s cake. Because that’s one of our Eyre family birthday traditions that has really stuck. (And since Elle was born on Saydi’s same birthday, we have always floated her cake too.) Sometimes those birthday cake floats have to get a bit creative. A hot tub works!

Here’s how it works if you want to try it yourself: the birthday girl makes dinner (or orders in, or just has dessert, it doesn’t have to be fancy!). Then have someone serve the food so you can truly be present. Assign each guest to bring one “favorite thing” they’ve discovered that year — a book, a quote, a podcast, a product, a recipe, anything that has made their life better or more beautiful. Go around the table and everyone shares. Have someone take notes and send them to everyone else so that you can remember all the beautiful things shared. Kristi did the best job with this!

It sounds simple but it is genuinely one of the best conversations you will ever have. You leave feeling so inspired with a list of things to look up and a full heart.

Gather for a Flower Party

My other sister Saren has a friend who happens to be her daughter-in-law’s mother. She is delightful in every way, and started a tradition to celebrate Saren years ago. She gathered all my sisters and my mom and they met at the incredible North Ogden Flower Farm to pick their own flowers, and have a picnic lunch together. I have always heard glowing reports, but once again, haven’t been able to get to Utah for that.

But now that I have college kids to help settle into dorms and new apartments in Utah (SIX moves in the last two weeks), I was able to join that celebration as well. And boy, that one also lived up to its expectations.

Here’s how Heidi organizes it: she contacts a local flower farm ahead of time and books a time for the group to come pick their own flowers. Each person gets a bucket and wanders through the rows of gorgeousness choosing their favorites.

Here are mine, I LOVE them!

Saren’s daughter-in-law Lexy and her mom, Heidi:

The birthday girl with Lexy:

Heidi not only organizes this event, but she brings a gourmet picnic.

It was so incredibly delicious. And there was something so soothing and special to sit there and slow down time as we caught up in the midst of all those beautiful flowers.

If this is something you want to try, remember if you don’t have a flower farm nearby, a farmers market flower stall or even a gorgeous garden setting could work beautifully too. The point is just the gathering. And being together.

How to Gather Women Well

I also got to celebrate Charity’s birthday with her “closing of the bones” ceremony this summer as well. A third way to celebrate that was so unique, bonding and even emotional.

All three of these celebrations had something in common beyond beautiful settings and good sentiments shared (as well as good food!).

They were intentional.

Someone took the time to plan something meaningful, to gather people together on purpose, and to create space for real conversation. I think intention is the secret ingredient in any good women’s gathering. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It just has to be on purpose.

So whether it’s a favorite things dinner, a flower farm afternoon, a “closing of the bones” ceremony or something completely different, I hope this gives you an idea or two to celebrate the women in your life a little better. They deserve it.

Sisters as a Very Special Gift

I just have to end this with a sister sentiment. Because these are my dear sisters after all. The biggest gift my parents gave me was siblings. And another incredible gift? They modeled being good friends. And taught us to be best friends.

Did we become such good friends because we fought so much and had to spend time together on the “repenting bench?” Did we just get lucky enough to be born in the same family with people we just automatically adored? Have our parents just been good models to show us how to forgive and give each other the benefit of the doubt?

Who knows, but I’m so grateful.

Because I KNOW it hasn’t always been butterflies and rainbows. We sure had some good squabbles growing up! But as I sat in these gatherings with my sisters I felt such an incredible pang of gratitude for all the squabbles, misunderstandings, relationship repairs, shared experiences that have made us closer through the years.

And grateful for all the wonderful women gathered along the way that they have shared with me through the years.

There is so much power in gathering women together, and I loved these good excuses to do exactly that.

Maybe I need to get better at celebrating my own birthdays!