{"id":35851,"date":"2017-07-10T18:00:18","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T23:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=35851"},"modified":"2017-07-10T13:19:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T18:19:36","slug":"six-tips-for-entertaining-overnight-guests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=35851","title":{"rendered":"Six Tips for Entertaining Overnight Guests"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love to entertain, and when it’s overnight guests, which also happen to be family members, that’s even better.\u00a0 One of my favorite things in the entire world is being with my family, and we had both children, their spouses, and Little Miss here for the long July 4th weekend.\u00a0 As a bonus, my brother-in-law and nephew, who are ending up a road trip from Alaska, spent a few days here, also. Our last bit of company left yesterday. \u00a0 Although it was a lot of work, I was in heaven and thoroughly enjoyed all of the cooking and cleaning.\u00a0 Some people just panic when it’s time to have out-of-towners stay a few days, but after years of experience, I have a check-list of six tips for hosting overnight guests that will make the experience stress-free for the hostess.<\/p>\n

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\"Spring<\/p>\n

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CLEAN IN ADVANCE<\/strong> – Someone told me once that people don’t notice if your house is clean, but they notice if it’s dirty.\u00a0 I don’t know if that is true or not, but I do know that I want a clean house when our guests arrive.\u00a0 Let’s say our guests are arriving on Friday.\u00a0 I’ll do the heavy cleaning on Wednesday.\u00a0 If I notice that something needs a repair, a paint touch-up is needed, there are a few dirty windows, or something needs a spot cleaning, then I have time to do it.\u00a0 Waiting till the last minute to clean just doesn’t work for me.\u00a0 I want the cleaning bucket to be stowed away and my house to be sparkling when the door bell rings.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\"How<\/p>\n

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PLAN THE MENU AND DO THE GROCERY SHOPPING IN ADVANCE<\/strong> –\u00a0 I like to sit down with a pen, notebook, and cookbooks and plan each meal for each day.\u00a0 If it’s just bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, I write it down because that will require bagels from my local shop and cream cheese from the grocery.\u00a0 As I am making my menu, I have a shopping list right there, too.\u00a0 I write down each ingredient that I need to purchase, and I also check my pantry to make sure everything is in full supply.\u00a0 I also have a list of the shops I will need to visit.\u00a0 For instance, wine will require a stop at the wine shop (we can’t buy wine in our grocery stores here in Kentucky.)\u00a0 To simplify shopping, I sometimes use my store’s app to shop online and pick the things up later.\u00a0 However, when I’m about to entertain, I would rather physically go to the store and make my own selections.\u00a0 Plus, I might see something in the store that I forgot to add to my list.<\/p>\n

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\"French<\/p>\n

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FILL SOME ROOMS WITH FLOWERS<\/strong> – It’s so nice to have a large bouquet of flowers in a main traffic area in your home and a few smaller bouquets in your guests’ bedrooms and in the powder room.\u00a0 My local market gets their flower shipments on Mondays and Fridays.\u00a0 I always try to buy flowers on those days so they will stay fresh longer.\u00a0 (Each bouquet has a sell-by date on it just like a gallon of milk does.) Since I have already done my cleaning and big grocery shopping by then, I have time at the last minute to stop in and buy fresh flowers and to make an early morning run to the bagel shop.\u00a0 It’s all about the details, and those last-minute details make entertaining a little more special.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Janette<\/p>\n

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PLAN YOUR WARDROBE<\/strong> – I even like to plan my wardrobe in advance.\u00a0 I always make sure that all of the laundry is washed and ironed before our guests arrive, and since I know which activities we will be doing, I select the clothes I will be wearing in advance.\u00a0 When we have overnight guests, I like to be dressed and ready for my day as soon as I get up each morning.\u00a0 That gives me time to get the Keuring ready, empty the dish washer, fluff the pillows, bring in the paper, change the water in the fresh flower bouquets, set out the plates, and breakfast items, etc.\u00a0 Having my outfits planned in advance saves me a step when I need to be doing something else.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\"Kentucky<\/p>\n

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SCHEDULE ACTIVITIES AND RESERVATIONS,<\/strong> BUT BE FLEXIBLE<\/strong>– I research things that are going on around town and buy tickets in advance.\u00a0 Ditto for restaurants.\u00a0 We have a new and very popular restaurant that makes an excellent brunch.\u00a0 As soon as I knew we would be going there after church on the July 4th long weekend, I made reservations.\u00a0 Be prepared to be flexible, and consider your guests’ interests and restrictions when planning what you will be doing.\u00a0 For instance, I made reservations to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the local Thoroughbred Center<\/a>.\u00a0 However, we had to be there by 8:45 in the morning, and I knew Jordan, Yankee, and Little Miss would not arriving until after midnight the night before.\u00a0 Getting a sleepy toddler up and out the door that early was not a good idea, so I canceled the reservations.\u00a0 Instead, we walked to the farmers’ market mid-morning and discovered on the way that the library was having children’s activities in the park.\u00a0 Also, a local coffee shop was having a big birthday celebration near another park. By being flexible, we had a lovely morning, and we were all happy.\u00a0 It all worked out so much better.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Quiddler<\/p>\n

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HAVE A PLAN B FOR BAD WEATHER<\/strong> – It’s great to have outdoor activities planned in the summer unless the weather forecast predicts rain.\u00a0 Always have a back-up plan.\u00a0 Know which movies are playing in your area, and what’s going on at the local museums.\u00a0 Also, have some board games and puzzles ready.\u00a0 Two that we love are Cranium<\/a> and Quiddler.<\/a>\u00a0 Sometimes all it takes is a deck of cards and a good game of rummy to make everyone happy.<\/p>\n

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\"Six<\/p>\n

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So, that’s it for my suggestions.\u00a0 I stand by them and am pretty sure that you follow them, you can make entertaining in your own homes a little easier.\u00a0 If you have any to add to the list, we would love to hear them.<\/p>\n

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Take care.<\/p>\n

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Affiliate link added<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love to entertain, and when it’s overnight guests, which also happen to be family members, that’s even better.\u00a0 One of my favorite things in the entire world is being with my family, and we had both children, their spouses, and Little Miss here for the long July 4th weekend.\u00a0 As a bonus, my brother-in-law […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35851"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35851"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35859,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35851\/revisions\/35859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}