Happy New Year! Wishing you and your family a fantastic 2022. And, of course, wishing the Pandemic would come to an end soon.

How can you safely still have fun together?

New years is time to contemplate. We took some risks visiting my husband’s 90 year old mother. We hadn’t seen her for two years.

We tried to do it safely. We only ate outside in restaurants (we are lucky she lived in Florida as this would have been impossible in Iowa).

Still we took a risk. We didn’t wear masks when we sat with her for breakfast in her apartment.

But the rewards were many. Just being together was important for us.

We are lucky we visited before the wildfire of Omicron took hold.

So going into 2022, we will all have to think about what gatherings of close friends and family are worth the risk.

And if we are going to be together, why not have fun and do a mystery party together? That way we will let our playful and creative sides out and double the laughs we share together.

Because who knows what this Pandemic will bring. We need strong memories of great times together to see us through any periods of forced isolation we may face. New Year’s eve or New Year’s day parties can help create such memories.

We have developed some kits you can use to host virtual parties with 8 family or friends. We also have lots of kits for in-person parties if you want to take the risk and host one in-person. Try and keep the numbers small to reduce the risk to our communities. See our home page for details.