IMPRESS THE GUESTS
With These Holiday Hosting Tips
The holidays are rapidly approaching, and soon, we’ll share laughs while enjoying the festivities with our loved ones. Before the celebrations begin, you must prepare your home for visitors, especially if they stay overnight. It can be stressful whether it’s your in-laws, best friends, or distant cousins coming to stay with you. You want to leave a good impression, but how do you ensure everyone’s needs are met, including yours? Here are three tips for setting yourself up for a successful holiday, regardless of who stays with you. Stock up on your guests’ favorites. Have you ever stayed with someone who didn’t have extra food for their guests? Don’t put your guests in this situation. Load up your pantry, refrigerator, and cupboards with your guests’ favorite foods and drinks. If you don’t know what they are, ask ahead of their visit! Your guests will appreciate your conscientious gesture and have a much more enjoyable time if they can eat their favorites while visiting. Prepare a guest room. If your guests are staying with you, you need to prepare somewhere for them to sleep. Make sure you make up the bed, have plenty of pillows and blankets on hand, and provide adequate closet space for their clothes. Even if they aren’t staying in a traditional bedroom, their sleeping area should still be ready when
they arrive. Clear off a table for them to use as a nightstand and put sheets on the couch or mattress where they’ll sleep. Use real dishes. When we have company over for a meal, especially a large gathering, it’s usually easier to use plastic or paper options — saves on cleanup, too! The holidays are not necessarily the time for this shortcut. Break out the fine china if you have it, or use regular dishes for your guests. It’s okay for the kids to have paper plates, but if you want to make a good impression on visiting adults, nicer dishes will dress up the table setting and meal.
for the Books! IN THE SPOTLIGHT
A Cross-Country Adventure
The adventure lasted 71 days — they traveled 14,076 miles through 29 states and the District of Columbia and explored eight national parks and a variety of national forests. They bundled up for temperatures reaching just 13 degrees F and endured 97-degree heat! The best part is they only encountered one traffic accident. Dellajean, a Wolf Retirement Navigation client, celebrated her son’s retirement from the U.S. Marine Corps after 23 years of service with an amazing cross-country trip. After retiring in 2020 during the height of the
of a recommendation we received from a passerby, a destination we read about while in the hotel, or just simply a whim. We were never in a hurry, and he was very patient with me being a little slower than him.” The sights Dellajean and her son saw together were absolutely breathtaking. “We took as many backroads as possible to avoid the interstates. This way, we got to see the real ‘America the Beautiful’ instead of rushing down a highway,” Dellajean says. Dellajean, thanks for sharing your cherished memories with us! We look forward to seeing where you and your son adventure to next!
pandemic, the two planned to go on a trip to catch up and enjoy each other’s company. Originally, they set out for a month-long trip navigating the U.S, but the adventure easily turned into two-and-a-half months! The journey began when her son drove from his home in California to Florida to pick her up. From there, they went up the coast and zigzagged across the country, eventually making their way down the Pacific Coast Highway. “Each day, we’d wake up and decide which direction we were heading that day,” Dellajean tells us. “We’d go off
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