Winter Hospitality

 

For the past several years, we’ve had the privilege of welcoming our friends to spend a couple of nights at our home as they travel to and from a marriage conference. I think they have stayed in four of our five houses, and it feels like a tradition now to have them each year. (So much so, actually, that I just realized I forgot to have them sign the guest book this time!)

                The day they arrived last week was going to be a work-from-home day for me, but at the last minute, I ended up going to pray with someone before a surgery and stopping by a funeral visitation, so I think I had something like 20 minutes between getting home for the day and their arrival. Once upon a time, that would have utterly stressed me, but I did my best to be prepared…and they are gracious friends, so that helped!

                Maybe you are standing today where the Bekah of 20 years ago stood, and if that is the case, let me tell you what I did to try to make hospitality go smoothly while being on the go myself!

                The night before their arrival, Ryan worked to set up the guest room. Since we no longer have a dedicated guest room in our house, this setup involves inflating the air mattress, pulling out the down mattress cover to put over it, washing the sheets (which live in a storage tub under our bed) and making the bed. In the winter, we also put a space heater in this room, because it can be chilly at night, and we also pull out the guest towels, roll them, and put them in a basket.

                While he worked on that (and cleaning the house in general), I spent a few hours in the kitchen working on food prep. I made a pot of chili and some healthy cinnamon roll muffins that could work as dessert or breakfast. I also made a fresh batch of protein balls and granola bars, because we were running low.

                I was so glad we chose to work hard the night before to get everything ready, because I was gone almost every moment of the day when they arrived. Just before they showed up, I flew in the door, set the table, put the pot of chili back on the stove to warm up, and turned on lights and the diffuser to try to give the house a big of a cozy feel – like I’d been home all day after all. I had just enough time to put away the dishes drying on the counter and put Lexi’s leash on before the door opened!

                We actually had a bit of a sunset that night, so before we ate, we all headed out for a walk around part of the lake. The chili tasted extra good after that! Nice and warm. (We had cheese and crackers with the chili, by the way.)

                Frog and Jenna came bearing gifts: homemade hot cocoa bombs and homemade simmer potpourri. I was so excited!

                We ate together and then just spent the rest of the evening hanging out and talking. I love low-key, easy nights like that.

                This year we went to the marriage conference too, and I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow. Frog and Jenna came to stay with us again on their way back home. I think we were all glad to be safely back in this house after driving in freezing rain for two or three hours!

                We stopped at the store on the way home to grab some frozen broccoli, tater tots, a razzleberry pie, and some ice cream.

                I defrosted some chicken thighs we had in the freezer and put a marinade on them for a few minutes. Ryan grilled them while the tater tots cooked up in our new air fryer. I steamed some broccoli, and the razzleberry pie baked while we ate.

                I was pretty impressed with how it turned out, given that we hadn’t been home for over a day!

                We had another good evening hanging out together, and then they headed back home Sunday morning after a good, long night of sleep.

                We hope they continue this tradition for many years to come, and we also hope we can go with them again. And in the meantime, I hope you found an idea or two for hosting friends at home – even on busy days. (And remember…your friends just love being with you. They don’t need a magazine-worthy experience.)