Compartment 14B

Handling visitors in the early days. 2008-06-22 - 2:35 p.m. I cannot believe that June is fading fast already and Canada Day (July 1st) is just around the corner. We�re thinking of inviting people here for Canada Day (we've never had a housewarming and people want the chance to meet Biscuit) but I�m wrestling with how to word the invitation so that people will feel welcome to show up, have some food, maybe take a dip in the pool, but then leave again. In other words, I want them to visit, but I don�t think I want a whole houseful of people to show up and stay for the entire day. Is that wrong of me? For starters, J�s friends and mine don�t really mix. We had a Canada Day party a few years ago and my friends showed up with food to share, stayed for a bit, then headed out. It was a steady trickle in and out for most of the day. J�s friends mostly showed up with their own booze (nobody brought so much as a bag of chips to contribute), took over our backyard for the day, and basically froze out my friends. I mean, I kind of get it: J�s group is just that, a group. They all know each other. My friends all know me, but don�t really know each other, so they don�t have a lot of incentive to just hang out together and interact. And J�s friends are a hard group to crack: they�ve all known each other forever and have the inside scoop on the jokes and stories that have evolved over the years. Still, I don�t really feel like a repeat of that past Canada Day, especially not with a less-than-1-month-old baby and a demanding toddler in the house. So, what I�m thinking is something along the lines of sending an email saying we�ll be at home receiving visitors, and if the weather is good we�ll have the BBQ on and the pool open and people should feel welcome to drop by. I�m going to avoid mention of �party�. Do you think that�ll do the trick? Do you have any other ideas? Would doing this by evite be a bad idea since that�ll look too much like an invitation to an all-day gathering? How do I make sure people feel welcome to visit, but not to settle in and stay for the entire day? Before - After All content � Shawna 2003-2010 That means no swiping my stuff - text, images, etc. - without asking. P.S. If you're emailing me, replace the [at] with @ in the "to" line. Oh, and if you put the word "journal" in the subject line it'll have a better chance of making it past my junk mail filters. recommend me HTML and design help by Jo hosted by Diaryland