Hostess Journal : A Lovely Keepsake To Cherish
This weekend my family is having their Christmas get together. Although we aren’t an overly large family (about sixteen of us when all assembled at my mother’s house), it isn’t often that we are all able to get together at the same time, usually no more than two or three times a year. With many of you having company over for the holidays, I thought this would be a perfect time to bring you a little information on starting a hostess journal, which is sure to be cherished by you and your family for generations to come.
I have always wanted to do this but only just now did. I simply purchased a journal, lined or plain, it makes no difference.
My journal is for Bountiful, our new home.
Whenever we have company over (What a gift it is to be able to entertain friends and family!), I write the date at the top of the page, the names of our guests, what we served, and any special memories or a little summary of the gathering.
My first entry was for our impromtu Christmas party.
(I really do have horrendous handwriting but I know my children will be glad I wrote this in my own hand one of these days. They may also wonder why I didn’t go into medicine…)
The second entry was when my Mother, Father, and Grandmama came over with my nephew and niece for dinner.
Their anniversary was coming up and so we gave them a gift and I wrote down what it was in addition to the other information.
That time,. I had everyone sign the book. Katy especially enjoyed this.
We took some special photos, so I placed them in an envelope and tucked them inside.
Of course, this would be a lovely idea for a scrapbooker to expand on but I prefer to go with the lesser pressure option right now, you can always go back and scrapbook later.
My niece, Elle is just a few months old, so I traced her wiggly hand on the page. 🙂
I know I’m going to cherish this and it is such a simple idea.
What a wonderful keepsake to pass down to my kids, too!
Special thanks to my dear friend, Maralee McKee, for taking time to talk with me yesterday about the wonders of keeping a Hostess Journal. I just knew she’d be a wealth of information and she has been keeping one for about fourteen years now. I’ve heard of other ideas where folks kept a special table cloth and had each guest sign it in permanent ink. I love that idea but the journal is something I can pick up and flip through, remembering what I served to people and drawing ideas for future guests.
Just a simple, lovely idea I thought I’d bring you in time to make your Christmas entries. This would make a lovely hostess gift as well.
Merry Christmas. Take time to draw joy from the simple things!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
Grandmama, Katy Rose, Mama, and niece, Elle.
Joy is not in things; it is in us.
-Richard Wagner. Submitted by Sara. Submit your quote here.
I made the Elvis Presley cake for our Christmas lunch today. It was a hit and an empty pan to prove it. I am going to check out the Hamilton Beach coffeepot-looks like something to tell Santa.
I like the idea of keeping track of special times….but what really hit me about this one is: your mama & grandmama are so YOUNG!!!
We ended up with one of these by default – and it’s precious! I started writing down what I gave people at the winter holidays because I can’t trust my memory NOT to give them the same thing over and over, and I started writing down what kids got for their birthdays, to make the thank-you note writing easier … and then it became a place to put the guest lists for the parties … and then it became a place to write down the funny things little kids said at the parties … and now it’s a raggedly old spiral notebook but more precious than gold. What a good idea to start with a sturdy and beautiful book to begin with! Thank you, Christy and Maralee!
I recently started doing this, only I call mine a kitchen journal, because I write recipes in it too. I have all of our favorite recipes typed and put in sheet protectors in a binder, but this is more personal-recipes I’ve made up and menus, timelines, and guest lists, plus my thoughts on some things. love your site!
Christy, my mother in law started keeping a journal book like this the year they built their lakehouse, and at every gathering all the guests write in comments about the visit. She has been gone for several years now and my husband and his siblings have kept up the tradition. Since the lakehouse is a family owned property, different people visit throughout the year with individual family members as well when the whole family clan of 40 descend there on holidays. It has such precious memories throughout the years. I believe that there are now around 40 journals of the past in the collection. It makes you remember things you have totally forgotten when you take a vist down the memory lane reading through a past journal.
We have some memory books too. We move quite often and everytime we do (or friends do) we have friends write something into the book to remember the good times. This could be something funny that happened with us or just a real good memory.
for my boys i started a memory book when they started with school. At the end of the school year i asked the teachers to summerize the year with them and what they will remember the most about them. I also asked the teacher (up to about 4th grade) to use maybe part of an english class to write something to the boys. they went to a british school for 5 years and had the same kids in class all these years. it is amazing to look back and see the growth they had and how they developed. There was a time when it was me initiating this because they did not see the need at some points but when they turned about 14-15 they loved reading them and looking back.
I am sure your family will enjoy to look back at the memories you create.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas!
Thank you Christy. What a wonderful idea! I guess there is no time like the present to start one. I do wish I had one waaay back when, as all the grandparents and my mama were still around and my kids were little. Thanks to Maralee, too for all the wonderful things she does too.