A Happy Hostess Gift

I thought I'd make a quick post about a little thing I do when I have company come to stay at my house. It started in 2007 when my mom surprised me announcing that she would come and stay with us for 6 weeks when I gave birth to our son. Yes! Six whole weeks. It was so amazing and wonderful to have that support from my own mom. We had plenty of support already with my mother-in-law and church friends, but to have your own mom their to help, WOW!

I digress. I started to think about being away from my home for that long and wanted to show appreciation for her commitment so I filled a photo box with goodies and put it up in her room, complete with a big bow on it. I packed it with her favorite snacks and I believe some lotion, but I also added a set of small cards with envelopes and a book of stamps, so she could keep in contact with her family and friends back home. I knew this welcome gift needed to become a tradition.

Fast forward to today and I'm posting about a tray of goodies I made up on the 27th of August for a couple that brought my mom out as they traveled on their way to Oregon. We weren't sure that they were going to stay the night so I had a brown handled bag and curling ribbon ready to turn it into a to-go gift. They arrived early enough that they wanted to keep on the road, so the water and snacks did transfer over to the bag. I handed them the bag and grabbed my mom in return. (I'm keeping the lotion and gift set just in case they stay on the way back through to pick up my mom.)

It wasn't fancy, but it was fun to put together. Here's a couple of close-up photos.





What tradition's do you have when people come to visit? Cleaning your house in chaos does not count!