True Confession:  I’m 39 years old and I still love slumber parties with my girl friends.  From 4th grade all through high school, pretty much every weekend was either spent sleeping at a friend’s house or having a friend sleep at mine.  Then of course college is basically a 4 year slumber party.  After college, I lived with 3 girls for half a year and the slumber party continued.

Then I got married and my friendships changed.  Instead of sitting up late nights with my girl friends eating cookie dough ice cream and talking long into the night about everything, I had a husband.   And truly it was fantastic – I still connected with my friends but I always came home to Jeff.  Jeff became the one I talked to late into the night.  (This is a good thing, and I’m thankful for my relationship with Jeff.) Eventually though, probably after I had children, I started feeling like all my friendships with women were superficial and surface level.  Something was missing from them and I wasn’t sure what it was.

But then when my youngest was a year old, a friend from my high school years and I left the families behind and went on a road trip to Vermont for another friend’s wedding.  We rode 7 hours together each way and spent 2 nights together in a hotel room.  And I started feeling like I was connecting again.  There’s something special that happens when girls (no matter your age) wash off the make-up, put on pajamas and sit up and talk.    I don’t know how to describe it, but if you’ve experienced it you know what I mean.

Since then, I’ve gone on 3 church retreats, 1 hotel stay at Women of Faith, 2 hotel stays for the MOPS Int. Convention, and 4 leadership retreats for my MOPS group.  All of those involved my girl friends and pajamas and definitely some of my best memories.  My sister gets this too – at Christmastime, she sent her husband and baby home (5 minutes away) and spent the night at my Dad’s while my family was there so we could hang out late into the night!  Those friendships have grown and I’ve let my guard down.  I know it’s probably hard to believe considering how open I am writing here, but I really have a difficult time letting people hold a spot in my heart, but my pajama friends do.

So if you are ever presented the opportunity to go away with girl friends – do it!  If not, create your own opportunity.  Dance, play games, watch movies, laugh, sing, talk, eat, cry… whatever you do, I promise it’s more fun when you do it in your pajamas!

♥Becki

P.S. This picture is the only picture I could find with pajamas… because even though friendships deepen when the makeup comes off and the pajamas go on… friends know that the camera should also be put away!

P.S.S.  I don’t know if I should say thanks Tammy for your MOPS newsletter article which inspired me to write this post, or sorry Tammy for slightly copying your article!  Regardless, I’ve loved our pajama parties!