Holiday Houseguests

As you assemble your grocery list for the meals you'll be cooking, here are some extra things you'll want to make sure you have on hand throughout the visit:

• Breakfast cereals sliced bread, muffins, frozen waffles, instant oatmeal, eggs and other self-serve breakfast items if you don't plan on cooking formal breakfasts.
• Check your supply of butter, margarine, and jams.
• If you're notplanning to cook formal lunches, you'll want to havesome of the following items available: deli meats and cheeses, canned tuna fish,purchased pasta salad orfixings to make a quick one yourself, hard-cooked eggsfor egg salad, sandwich bread, mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce, pickles, olives, or the phone number of the local pizza shop.

• If young children will be among your guests, you might want to stock up on some of the following child-friendly foods: American cheese, juice boxes, pretzels, fish snack crackers, animal crackers, Cheerios brand cereal, boxed macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, frozen pizza, frozen chicken nuggets. That will give the parents easy, familiar alternatives to offer the children when your much labored-over holiday foods are rejected (and I promise they will be!)
• Juice, milk, soft drinks, iced tea, coffee or any other beverages you know your guests will enjoy.
• Snacks that guests can help themselves to such as fresh or dried fruit, cheese and crackers.
• Sufficient paper towels, toilet tissue, facial tissues, and paper napkins.
• Bath soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and extra toothbrushes for the guest bathroom. Other toiletry options (if you really want to be nice) would include hairspray, hair gel, scented bath gel, scented body lotion, disposable razors, shaving cream and talcum powder. All of these items can be arranged in a decorative basket either in the guest bath or bedroom.

Extra Touches

Fresh seasonal flowers or greenery are always nice in communal rooms. Put a little bouquet in the guest bath or bedroom for an extra welcoming touch.

In case there are leftovers, it's good to have containers on hand for your guests to take some home. Heavy duty storage bags, disposable baking pans, or disposable storage containers make leftover transport easy, and guarantees that your favorite bowl doesn't get lost in the sharing.

If you know your guests' favorite foods, it's thoughtful to have some to offer over the span of their visit.

Offering late afternoon cocoa, or hot cider and light snacks can help everyone relax at the end of a busy day before it's time for dinner.

Your guests will appreciate it if you have current magazines and newspapers available for those times when they need to amuse themselves.