Happy National Women’s Friendship Day! Guest Blogger Debba Haupert of Girlfriendology.com

 Sept. 21^st, 2008, marks the 10^th celebration of National Women’s Friendship Day (NWFD). The celebration day was created in 1999 by the Kappa Delta sorority to remind us to appreciate and celebrate our friendships. NWFD is a great ‘excuse’ to get the girls together and have some fun. While it might be too late to meet-up on the 21^st, you really can celebrate this special occasion every day – so plan some fun events with your girlfriends!

Check out these ideas for great girlfriend get togethers:

• Happy hour, dinner, lunch, brunch or any opportunity to eat, drink and be merry with your very BFFs. Plan a GNO with your favorite gal pals for a little ‘girlfriend therapy!’ Reconnect with your friends and spend an evening laughing away all your concerns.
• Mani, pedi, massage – the works! Grab the girls and head to a local spa or salon for some pampering together. Then ease back into the real world with an after-the-spa dinner together. Consider this: a recent study by Dove indicates that 70% of women feel prettier because of their girlfriends. So get your pretty on by spending time with your BFFs!
• Go old school and pass some notes (real paper) with your girlfriends – take a class together! Learn how to knit, cook, bead or speak French together. Take a scrapbooking class, go to a wine tasting or do yoga together. Spend time and learn together – it’s guaranteed that girlfriends make learning much more fun!
• Road trip! Autumn is a great time to go to an outlet mall or a fall festival. Celebrate Oktoberfest with the girls, there’s bound to be one close by, visit a nearby town for a fun weekend festival.
• For starters…start a book club, a gardening group, a gourmet girlfriends monthly dinner. Plan a way to see each other more often and have fun on a regular basis. And invite some new women to the group – the more the merrier!
• Start shopping! Remember when we got back-to-school clothes? Maybe we should start that tradition over for new fall fashions. Go shopping with your girlfriends. They always give the greatest shopping advice!
• Surprise! It’s a girl’s get-together! At an early celebration of NWFD this week, a group of girlfriends told me that they have a monthly surprise get-together. They take turns planning the super-secret event. An email shares the date, time and meeting location – but no one is told what they are doing. Everyone shows up and just participates in whatever the host planned. Find some spontaneous girlfriends and have fun!
• Beyond the fun, the laughter and the shopping treasures, here’s the real benefit of time spent with your gal pals. It reduces your stress, and positively impacts your health, happiness and longevity. So, make plans to spend time with your girlfriends and tell, or at least show, them how much you appreciate their friendship. Make memories together. Laugh. Cry. Then laugh some more. September 21^st , or any day of the year, life really is better together – with your girlfriends!