I concur, I have the same issue. Initially there was a task bar to let you know the status of pending tasks, but now it's a guessing game. I even emailed the game developers looking for answers!
On the right side of the screen you have icon friends. Just click on it and then you will see your friends. Under their names you will see blue icon which you click and by doing so you will send them a gift back.
I'm having a lot of trouble moving forward in the game. I'm at level 22 but my only active task (other than buying gems) is opening the "mysterious chest", but every time I click it the game crashes. How do I get the flower stall, the barbershop, and the stone oven? I have tons of gold but no other buildings that I can purchase. I like this game but it seems to have a lot of problems