Home Away from Home

When my parents were here last October, I got a little carried away setting up the guest room.

The tray with the awesome estate-sale napkin was laid with specialty treats and other goodies.

For doing their correspondence while taking their morning tea.

Flowers from the front and back yards, in a giant vase from TJ Maxx, on a vintage hanky from Holly's wedding, next to some art I bought on Craigslist when I was newly single and able to decorate my own apartment the way I wanted to for the very first time.

(If you're look at all that and wondering what the big deal is, please consider that the desk is currently piled a foot tall with paper to be filed, the corner where the vase was is now stacked with bags bursting with free toys we scored for Wombat last fall and are still letting trickle out slowly over time, and the bed is usually completely blackened with cat hair.)

My parents got such a kick out of the staging last time (and heck, it's the least I can do considering we all have to share a bathroom) that I wanted to do something equally overwrought and ridiculous when they came to stay with us last month. I didn't have a lot of time to spend on preparations, but I made sure to include a few details to make their stay memorable...

I like to give our guests some bedtime reading in case they have trouble falling asleep after we've finally released them to their rooms after talking their ears off late into the night. I usually include at least one books on California and one on wherever our guests have come from.

I make sure games and t.v. remotes are handy too, just in case.

Fresh flowers are always a nice touch, even if it's just a sprig of something unusual. I cut that little shoot from the neighbor's tree and used it to decorate the contents of the breakfast-in-bed tray, which this time included not only our usual Guest Book but also a Snapfish photo album full of pictures from the time my parents spent with Wombat during his first year. If I'd had more time, I would have also used similar sprigs to dress up some guest toiletry kits or maybe some thanks-for-coming parting gifts, but instead I spent way too long drafting and designing the agenda for the weekend, so that's the only place the sprig appeared.

What's that? The agenda? Yes, the agenda. With posted Arrival and Departure Times and menu options and a list of activities that qualified as "free play," for the times so delineated.

(My parents are, although to varying degrees, planners like me (or vice versa), so although a projected timeline of their five-day, four-night stay with us was certainly silly, it also was quite practical and even surprisingly useful, especially since we were trying to cram a Size D list of events into a Size A period of time. We didn't stick with the agenda 100 percent, but it made them smile, and that was its real purpose anyway, so hooray for that.

At the Maker Faire (tickets once again courtesy of reader Katie and Singer). (More photos here.)

At the Little Farm and Jewel Lake. (More.)

At Children's Fairyland. (More.)

Look familiar?

Free play in the backyard.

Going starkers outside and then climbing the stairs one at a time with no hands was not on the agenda. That's why it's important to be flexible.

wrote Leah at 12:26 PM | Comments (10)