Hospitality: Preparing For Guests

The next few days are going to be fairly busy.  Tuesday is the start of Emma's Easter break from school, and she is bringing 3 friends home with her.  We're excited about hosting a few of her friends, and sharing our lives with them for the week.

One of the things we've done to prepare for their arrival is to rearrange Emma's bedroom.  It's the smallest one, so space is at a premium. By moving the bed to a different wall we opened up room for a mattress to lay on the floor, and either she or her friend Deb will sleep there.

The other two guests are young men and they will be sleeping downstairs in our literary cafe.  We'll slide the table over to make room for two twin beds, and we'll put a tri-paneled room divider up to give them a bit of privacy.

Today, we'll be airing the extra mattresses and finding just the right sheets, blankets, and pillows for them.  We are not wanting to 'impress' them, but we want them to know that their comfort was thought of and that we are pleased to have them with us.

All this preparation and fun will culminate with a giant Easter buffet here on Sunday.  Our whole family, our guests, my parents, our friend Denny, and Tim's brother Dan and his family, so we will be 22 people if I am counting right.

The food is easy, I am doing a ham, and green bean casserole, and maybe garlic mashed cauliflower.  Everyone else is bring food, too, which makes this very doable.  I've already purchased the napkins and some taper candles in a pretty spring green for the tables.  My friend Becky, who runs Good Neighbors Candle Company, sent some candles home on Saturday, after Tim and the kids helped them clear out their basement.  One of them is an Irish Moss candle in the same spring green I am using.  I had thought of asking her to pour me a few of those but had hesitated due to them having illness, and water issues in their basement.  It was so thoughtful of her.

 A sad thing is that this year, only two kids are old enough to do an egg hunt!  We will miss our Texas friends who've spent the last several Easters with us.  Her little guys will be egg hunting back in Texas this year!  Sigh.  Well, Kyle and Kamryn will make the most of it I'm sure.

There is nothing like guests coming to make you realize that your rooms need a bit of freshening.  You know how you get used to things looking a certain way, and say, "One of these days, I need to touch up the paint on that trim," or some such thing.  We'll be doing some of that kind of thing this week too.

I also will be pulling out our nicest towels and wash cloths for our guests to use.  We tend to use things until they really need to move into the rag bin, so it is often these kinds of situations where we may purchase a few new things.  We'll see.

Again, our goal is a warm and welcoming home, a comfortable place to sleep, good food to eat, and fun to be had.  

Today the outside will get a bit of tidying as well.  It has been a long cold winter and so not a lot has been accomplished outside.  We will be raking the dead leaves from the front garden and sweeping the front walk.