In-Home Yoga Ladies’ Night

Years ago when my kids were younger, I must have been complaining to an older mom about my lack of close friends, because I remember her saying, “Don’t worry. When your kids get to be school age, they’ll start to make friends for you.” I mainly remember this statement because I totally didn’t believe it. Like, what? I had no confidence that I would want to be friends with my kids’ friends’ parents. Hey, I love my kids and I believe they mostly choose good friends, but it doesn’t mean I’m gonna jive with the parental units. But lo and behold, my seasoned mom friend was right: now that my kids are older, I have begun establishing friendships with their friends’ parents.

It started several months ago, when my friend Sally, whose son goes to school with my son, suggested some of us first grade moms should get together for a monthly ladies’ night. Since September, the six of us have gone to a couple of wine bars and even tried line dancing at a place called Bourbon Jack’s (which was actually not as campy as it sounds–we made it out without getting hit on by any cowboys or ridiculed for not wearing snakeskin boots). This month it was my turn to plan our monthly get-together. I decided to deviate a little from our norm and suggested an event I’ve hosted in the past and have wanted to repeat ever since: an in-home yoga night. My friend Joy is an instructor at a local yoga studio (Naam Yoga in Mesa, AZ) and graciously agreed to come to my house to lead an hour of in-home restorative yoga for us. With her guidance, we enjoyed a really fantastic evening. For anyone looking for a relaxing experience for a party, a birthday, a ladies’ night, or other group event, I say give an in-home yoga session a try! If you have the space for a few mats–even if you have to move some furniture–it’s totally worthwhile. Here are some highlights from our evening!

The Yoga:

Setting the scene with a relaxing ambience was the goal for this yoga night. Candles and tea lights provided soft lighting in the living room. Pulling some furniture out of my living room gave us enough space to practice comfortably.

Since several of the ladies don’t have much experience with yoga, Joy offered us a gentle, restorative practice. As part of the session, she also provided her own speakers to play a chill soundtrack for our stretches, mats for those who didn’t have their own, blankets, and lavender-scented eye masks. (So nice!) If you don’t personally know anyone who teaches yoga, contact any local yoga studio and I guarantee they would be happy to give you a rate for an in-home session, or direct you to someone who could.

The Food:

You didn’t think we were going to get through this post without any mention of food, did you?

After our yoga session, I wanted to serve a relatively light dessert. With the constraint of two of the ladies in our group being gluten-free, a pavlova (a sweet treat made primarily with beaten egg whites and sugar) seemed like a good choice. Topped with whipped cream and berries, it was like one big crunchy-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside marshmallow. Definitely a winner I will use again when serving gluten free friends.

To drink, I thought I’d give a little nod to the spa experience by making some cucumber water…and of course some dessert wines.

The Parting Gift:

Finally, after our hour of yoga, our dessert, and a riveting discussion of the MTV series Teen Wolf, it was time to wrap up. I know I always like getting presents, so I thought it would be fun to send everyone home with a small parting gift…just a little something to say thank you for coming to our first get-together of 2016, and to remind us of the choice to keep doing right by our bodies. Hence the Kind Bars piggybacked onto Fiji water bottles: a little refuel snack for a future workout.

I’m so glad things worked out for our little group to share an evening of yoga. Whether you consider yourself an advanced yogi or your only association with yoga involves enjoying the stretchiness of yoga pants, a private, in-home session with friends could be a comfortable, fun new way to experience the practice.