Who’s ready for a summer party?

Outdoor parties are one of my favorite things to come out of the pandemic.

The truth is that my main reason for not entertaining more is that you need to clean the house—and who wants to clean the house? But if I can host on our deck and in our yard, I don’t even have to pull out the vacuum or look for the furniture polish. I can just borrow a folding table and a couple of tents from my neighbor Kathy and focus on serving some fun food.

This week, we’re entertaining twice. I invited my work colleagues over for a weekday brunch, and our eighth grader is having a few friends over to celebrate his graduation one evening. Even for someone who loves hosting as I do, two gatherings in three days seems like a bit much. But I decided that my husband would only need to prepare the yard and deck once, and I would only have to set up tables and tents once. That seemed like it might be easier.

Time will tell whether I’m right.

There’s something about welcoming people to your home that feels a little special and maybe even a little vulnerable. It’s this beautiful way of sharing yourself and your space with people. I love going into a party with no expectations on which conversations I might fall into, what activities we might enjoy together, and which dish will be the one everyone is talking about.

I enjoy seeing who is the first to arrive and the last to leave, who brings what to add to the table, and which people seem to fall into conversation together and really connect. I love people—and I particularly enjoy my people—and entertaining offers a chance for me to show them how I care for them. What a gift to get to spend time celebrating our connection and just be together.

There is plenty that I do not do well at parties. I forget to serve drinks, and I always seem to be running to the kitchen for something that should have been on the table. But I have come to realize that guests at outdoor parties tend to be relaxed. They don’t expect me to have everything together. They’re perfectly happy to set up chairs or the badminton game, and everything will be just fine.

That allows me to focus on the aspects of the parties I care more about—the details, like cutting out a photo of every colleague and taping it to a wooden skewer to stick into the cake, or picking out a party favor.

Did we need a favor for a work party? Of course not. But I love a little parting gift, a token to take away to remember the time we spent together. So, I filled a vase with flyswatters—brand-new from the dollar store—and posted a sign encouraging everyone to take one. It made me smile every time someone picked a flyswatter as they said goodbye.

For the eighth graders, we won’t have favors. My rubber chicken idea was shot down, and I have no doubt that was the right call. But I have a watermelon carving in mind—and it has been approved. We have an ice cream cake on order. And our bird cookie cutter might make an inaugural appearance during preparations. Regardless, we are going to have a good time.

As summer kicks into full swing, I hope you’ll have a chance to spend time with some of your favorite people—indoors or out.

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