Welcome Gifts

I knew I would want to bring something with us to meet Gudrun on Friday, and I figured I should put something together based for her to come home to, based on a lot of conversations last year.  I was so nervous with Penny that I wound up taking everything with me and kind of throwing it at her.

This year, I wanted to be a little bit more sensible.  I got Gudrun the same welcome gift I got Penny—Leah and I went to Build-A-Bear and made a bear for her.  Leah got to be much more hands on this time—she picked the bear out, stood on the stuffing pedal and put the stuffing into it, added the heart and picked out the “clothing” which in this case was a bandana.  I broke out the Cricut again and made a “Welcome Gudrun” flag, Mike having selected the “Welcome” sticker over a Statue of Liberty sticker.  I got a cheap bag of small flags at Hobby Lobby and voila!  We have ourselves something to bring with us Friday.  Cute, eh?  (For the record, Thailand and Iceland and the US all have red, white, and blue flags.  I’m thinking this could be our hosting theme from here out—Australia, New Zealand, France, Norway, Chile…  Sorry, Canada and Japan, you’re each one short.  Too bad!)

I also picked up a few things to make a welcome basket for her. This will be sitting on her desk with a card when she arrives.  I went to a few different places to get these things and wound up with:

A Stafford High T-shirt, tissues, gum, a neat international travel journal and pen, sunscreen, fun socks, DC travel guide, and rubber bands for her hair that are shaped like a lollipop.   I put it all together and voila, a welcome basket!

So now the details are out of the way in terms of having things ready—her room is clean, the bathroom cabinet is cleaned out as is her sink, we know where we have to be and when.  

I suppose I’m getting a little bit more and more excited as we get closer to Friday.  I’ve got a to-do list going, and we’re working our way through it bit by bit.  I’ve taught Leah how to say Gudrun, and she’s doing quite well at it, so that’s a lot of fun.  Other than that, we’re more or less where we need to be!  Here’s hoping Friday goes well!