10 Tips for Hosting Your First Post-COVID Get-Together 

 

If you’re like most people, you’re anxiously awaiting your first post-COVID get-together with friends and family. Needless to say, you want to make this party one to remember.

 

With that in mind, here are ten tips for hosting your first post-COVID get-together.

Consider Your Budget and Location

The pandemic was a feast-or-famine affair — hopefully, you ate well and invested your stimulus wisely. However, you can still party heartily if your wallet contains little but moths due to using yours to cover living expenses.

 

Depending on your budget, you might do anything from a backyard barbecue to a full-fledged reunion. If you’re considering the latter, you may need to clear your property to provide enough space for multiple banquet tables. To that end, a skid steer is usually a good option.

 

Whatever you ultimately choose, the following ideas work for any price-point:

 

● Luau: You can pick up inexpensive leis at the dollar store or go all out and build a firepit big enough for roasting a pig.
● Sports camp: If you have an active clan, throw your bash at the home with the biggest lawn. If you have more cash, rent out a park, including the playing fields, and have a ball.
● Cosplay: If you and your friends spent some of the quarantine perfecting your outfit for the next ComicCon, why not show off your duds a little early? If you have deeper pockets, rent an outdoor screen and recreate the drive-in movie experience.

Start With Respect

Hopefully, every attendee to your first post-COVID get-together chooses vaccination, giving them extra protection against the virus. However, there is still much scientists don’t know, and not everyone has gotten their shots.

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), you are fully vaccinated two weeks after your second dose or following a one-shot vaccine. Until then, you should continue to take precautions such as wearing masks and staying six feet apart from others when gathering in indoor places.

 

Please note that if you take medications that impact your immune system, you are not considered fully vaccinated, even after having your shots — talk to your doctor.

Break Out the Bubbly

Now that you covered the bases, it’s time to party. Pop the champagne!

 

If you have the means, why not break out an exclusive brand deserving of the occasion. Please ensure that you keep a non-alcoholic bottle or two on hand so that even those who abstain can share in the toast.

Make It a Finger Food Affair

The centerpiece of hosting your first post-COVID get-together is mixing and mingling. You don’t want to weigh people down with overladen paper plates.

 

Get your finger-food game on-point. Treats like tiny cucumber sandwiches and chicken skewers travel well, letting people devote most of their attention to socializing.

Or Go Formal Sit-Down

However, you might have more exclusive tastes — or merely the desire to share the same table with loved ones again. If so, go all out with a formal dinner party.

 

Remember, much of the elegance lies in the presentation. A single scoop of ice cream served in a champagne glass with strawberries makes a 4-star looking dessert in seconds.

Share War Stories

What’s the craziest thing that happened to you during quarantine? Did you embrace those tips to plant a victory garden or learn a second language, or did you spend much of the time catching up on lost sleep?

 

Why not have a contest? You can play charades to guess what you did to fill the lockdown time or collaborate on a master list of disaster survival tips — like how to find toilet paper when store shelves run bare.

Play Games 

It’s finally time to break out the Twister again. However, it could take folks some time to readjust from over a year of restrictions.

 

If you want to be the post-COVID host with the most, make sure your event includes a mix of games, such as the Vertellis conversation starter game, the #1 game for togetherness that sparks meaningful memories and stories. Or play some other socially distancing friendly games, like Frisbee golf, while others can involve contact for those who feel comfortable.

Get Creative 

Even if you got crafty in lockdown, it’s lonely to knit by yourself. Why not get creative with the crew?

 

You can even build your get-together around a craft theme. Have a mix and match earrings party or a spa and wellness day — you can even make things for a fundraiser.

Do Some Good

Volunteering is a heartfelt way to give back as a group. Why not make your post-COVID get-together benefit a cause? You could participate in a neighborhood cleanup or help put together care packages for less fortunate families who didn’t weather the storm as well as you did.

Reduce Cleanup Hassles

Any party worth remembering creates a bit of a mess. However, you can minimize cleanup hassles by placing trash and recycling containers around your pad and establishing a soaking station for dirty dishware.

Follow These 10 Tips for Your First Post-COVID Get-Together

You want your first post-COVID get-together to be memorable and fun. Follow these tips for an unforgettable bash.

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About The Author

Oscar Collins is the managing editor at Modded. He writes about cars, fitness, the outdoors, and more. Follow @TModded on Twitter for more articles from the Modded team.

Can you have it all and should you even want it? 

As women, we are often told we can’t have it all, and that it’s either/or. Either we are good mothers, or we have successful careers. Because god forbid we should be good at both!

 

There’s even that episode of Sex and the City where Samantha claims her and the girls have it all, only for her curtain rod and her immunity to come crashing down, shattering her belief system, even if for just a little while.

 

But is that really true? Can we have it all? And do we even want it all?

As I’m writing this, I’m trying to take stock of my own life. Do I have it all?

 

Career woman 

Personally, I was always labeled as a career woman, from a very young age. Back then, I was no more than a career child, but I was always ambitious and driven, and knew exactly what I wanted to build for myself.

 

When I announced I was pregnant with my first child (at 28), some of my friends and business acquaintances were honestly shocked. How can you have a child now, I was asked. It will completely derail your career!

 

Mother of two 

When I had my second daughter two years later, I got the same kinds of intrusive comments.

 

How are you going to cope with two kids and that job of yours (I was working at a marketing agency at the time), you won’t have time for the girls and a full time job. You get the idea.

 

Turns out, I have had time, and still have, for both. And allow me to let you in on the big secret.

 

All or nothing 

In an overly (yet covertly) misogynistic world, where men demand that women give up their titles because it “sounds comic”, in a world where girls are still denied an education in nearly half the countries in the world, can we really expect to be applauded for our efforts?

 

When a woman chooses to devote her energy to her kids, a portion of society will label her as antiquated or taking the easy way out. After all, she is now relying on her husband for support, as opposed to paying her own way.

 

When a woman chooses to build one of those high-powered careers for herself that surpass the men in her league, she’s called a man-eater, heartless, cold, and a whole host of other terms I’m not going to repeat here. Can we just remember Miranda Priestly?

 

And, when a woman chooses to have both – kids and a very successful career, instead of seeing her as a source of inspiration, we drag her down and tell her she can’t possibly be good at both. That she will either be bad at her job, or raise inadequate kids.

Really?

 

The crux of the matter 

What I am about to say might be a bit of an unpopular opinion. However, I firmly believe that the women’s movement is about choice. About the ability and the right to choose what you want to do with your time on earth, free of judgement and prejudice.

 

If a woman decides she wants to be a stay-at-home mom, she needs to be able to fulfill that dream. If she chooses to run her own tech company, she should be able do that too. And if she wants both, what’s there to say that she can’t do it?

 

In reality, the only thing that dictates if you can have it all is time.

There are 24 hours in every day, and if you can fill those 24 hours with enough sleep, exercise and good food to keep yourself healthy, and find enough time to spend with your kids, your husband or wife, doing your job, watching Netflix and taking the dogs out for a walk – then there truly are no limitations.

 

Remember – the kids will grow up, and they won’t need your attention 24/7. If you make the time your kids and your career, well, you can live an incredibly full life. And even if you don’t – channel your inner Michelle Obama, the woman who has proven the sky is not the limit!

 

Discover your all 

I urge you to ask yourself what it is that you actually want. Don’t listen to society, your parents, your significant other. Listen to the voice inside your head exclusively, and decide what you want to do with the time given you.

 

If you don’t want to have kids, teach yourself how to survive the pressure others will put on you to try and change your mind. And if you don’t want a career, come up with a witty answer to the intrusive questions. If you want to be the first woman on Mars, just find a way to get in touch with Elon Musk.

 

A personal wishlist 

Finally, let me tell you how I realized I can actually do everything I wanted.

 

I adopted a dog in college. He was a French Spaniel, as I wanted a breed that was super sweet and snuggly, and despite everyone telling me I had no time for a dog, that the dog would be lonely and misbehave, that I would have no time to study – Jack taught me I can do it. Take care of him and myself, and graduate summa cum laude.

 

I realized I could have kids and still work. And that neither having kids nor working needs to trip me up, or prevent me from doing whatever it is I want to do – including going out dancing with my husband on a Wednesday night.

 

Phenomenal woman 

You’ll forgive me if I part with a quote adapted from Maya Angelou and a bit of Oprah:

“Make yourself proud to spell your name w.o.m.a.n. – whether you choose to spend your days raising happy humans, breaking the glass ceiling, or living a quiet, contented life no one may ever read about, but that puts a smile on your face every single morning.”

 

About The Author

About Julia Robson: Julia is the mum of two girls and two pups, a self-employed work-from-home wife and an expert librarian who can always find a book her kids will love to read next. She has always been a writer at heart and has finally found a way to let her creative side show – you can read some of her work on Medium

Why We Desperately Need To Stop Telling Guys To ‘Man Up’

Feelings. They are not unfamiliar to us and in fact, everyone harbors them. Some showcase their feelings more than others, but we cannot deny that we have them even if we tried. As human beings that we are, we hold a special ability in which we are able to fabricate emotions. Sensitivity is a beautiful trait to hold because it makes you well..human. It’s just the nature of things.

So why is it totally acceptable to tell any man he should “man up” when they let their feelings be known? Generally speaking, why should anyone withhold from having any emotions?

As we grow up into our own personas, we tend to be shown that only girls are able to cry and be sensitive, while guys should never show their feelings. Hence, crying is not an option and being afraid is out of the question. If they do happen to show even an ounce of any of said acts, then they are automatically labelled as being p*ssies and too feminine. Well, lemme tell you how much bullsh*t that is.

As a society, we have done a great job in shining light on very important problems in the world like body image, mental illnesses, sexist mindsets, etc. Just as how women are able to become the victim of all those problems, men can too. But, they are so often afraid to share their stories in fear of being labelled weak. They should be able to openly share it without fearing the status of their masculinity. Why? Well because men are just as human as women are.

Taking that into consideration, why can’t both genders equally display their emotions without one of them being criticized? Valuing a man who cannot fathom the notion of any type of sensibility is not cute. In other words, it’s not cute to tell any man to “man up.”

Making a man completely trash his emotions just makes for a frustrated male. A frustrated male who has been told to bottle up his feelings and adopt the typical macho man persona. What good does that do to our world? Other than not being able to develop any sort of empathy or sensitivity to be able to relate to others, nothing. Just a typical socially accepted emotionally disconnected guy. Cue the F*ck Boy.

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