Husbands, I'm going to solve your biggest holiday problem, and just tell you what to get your wife... but first, a bit of a story.

A few years ago, the guys and I got together for the first time. I know that makes it sound casual, but these were guys who had never met, but were about to spend four days in a stranger's house together. Despite being a bunch of John Does, we were stitched together by a shared interest in Free Grace and had "met" online. There was a lot of squinting to pair remembered Facebook profile pictures to full-size faces.

It was about 18 of us who gathered in Georgia at a place Pete, an online acquaintance from Florida, offered. It was terrific how Matt from Virginia meshed so well with Carl from Colorado, Bret from North Carolina hit it off with Ken from Alabama, and so on. It was like a class reunion, except we didn't share a class. We did a section of the Appalachian Trail, but the real journey had just begun.

After the retreat, the texts flew like crystal chips at an ice sculpting convention. In retrospect, the retreat was simply the launch pad for a rocket barrage of friendships. We've been together for two more years since, and in the meantime, guys have visited each other in various states and continued the endless conversation through text, pictures, emails, video chats, and more.

So, after three years of doing FGI men's retreats, my wife, sister-in-law and some of the wives of the guys mentioned above, decided to begin to build their own story together. They are doing the first-ever FGI women's retreat in the Smoky Mountains.

Now, listen. I've been to the Smoky Mountains, and even if this wasn't a trip of such social-spiritual significance, the location alone is worth the drive. Add to it the fact that the ladies who attend are almost sure to become lifelong friends, it's a sweet gig.

So, Husbands, tell your wives that there's a FGI women's retreat... no better yet, just register her, book travel, plan to keep the kids, and surprise her with the gift on Christmas. Seriously, I just took the pressure off. It costs about what you were going to spend on that new Dyson suck-o-mattic 5000 anyway, but trust me, she'll actually like this gift, as opposed to the vacuum cleaner gift mistake you were about to make.