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Leah Libresco Sargeant's avatar

Excellent! All my birthdays as a kid were pizza and cake in the backyard. And they were joint birthdays with my two years younger brother

This weekend we’re having a joint birthday for our 3 and 5yo girls just with grandparents but maybe next year we’ll do a peer party

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Nadya Williams's avatar

So fun!! Happy birthday to your girls! I feel like a backyard party could be even easier--less cleanup. Alas, not really an option in January.

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trisha's avatar

Love your heart and your encouragement to make hospitality simpler. Our deepest and longest relationships were forged over beer and pizza, barbecues with kids running wild,etc. People love to be included.

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Gary Badker's avatar

Great column.

I wonder if you came across an info on maintaining friendships? With a few folks, one can say even after considerable time, “we just pick up where we left off.” With others, folks just drift apart.

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Nadya Williams's avatar

I haven't read any studies on this, but I can certainly relate, and that is a great point--with some friends, we really do "pick up where we left off," even years later.

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Jennifer's avatar

Great ideas Nadya! It is so hard for an introvert perfectionist like me to be comfortable with folks I don't know well...I know it involves trust issues, etc. I need to relax 😅 and just live in the moment!

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Amy Mantravadi's avatar

I'm still struggling to figure out how to be hospitable in a household where I am the only neurotypical one and we have a preschooler. I've had to accept that hospitality might have to look a bit different in this season. But I do desire to have people at our house again in the future. There have been periods where our son freaks out if a strange person enters the house, but he's doing a bit better now. Thankfully, the Lord is merciful to even us weirdos.

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Bonnie Kristian's avatar

This is very similar to what we do: back yard, no planned games etc., I serve chips and beer and soda, then homemade cake. That’s it. If they’re lucky, maybe we buy paper plates with some kind of drawing they like. I do spring for paper invites, though, significantly so I can put in print: No presents.

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