signing a guest book

18 07, 2022

Guest Book Tradition

By |2022-07-17T07:01:29-05:00July 18th, 2022|A Writer's Life, Make Me Think Monday, Writer's Life|0 Comments

When you read the blog title, bet you thought about a guest book at a wedding or funeral or the cute welcome books at bed and breakfast inns or Airbnbs. There are those, but that’s not our guest book tradition.

We welcome guests to our home with our guest book and a cead mile failte plaque, which is the Irish greeting that means “A hundred thousand welcomes.”

Asking our guests to sign our guest book is a tradition we started when we were first married, a long time ago. As we moved around the country and world, we’ve always had a guest book. Guests who come for dinner or stay longer have filled more than one.

When we lived in Colorado, every summer our home overflowed with guests escaping the heat of their hometowns. Now that we are back in hot, humid Texas the guest book pages aren’t filling near as fast.

We have other guest books. The one from our wedding, and all the guest books listing those who paid their condolences at family funerals. We rarely look at those, but I’m so glad we have kept our home guest books.

We have signatures of family and friends from far and near. We even have Earl Campbell’s signature from his days as the Houston Oilers’ star running back. It’s fun to skim through the names and remember the occasion. We smile every time from fond memories with our guests.

If you don’t use a guest book in your home, and you’re interested in starting to use one, there are some great ideas on Pinterest. A lot are for wedding guest books but are easily adapted for home guest books.

This is a cute blog about a young couple and their guest book. They share their reasons for having a guest book and how they chose from all the options.

30 07, 2014

Guest Book – One Word Wednesday

By |2014-07-30T06:00:35-05:00July 30th, 2014|one word Wednesday|0 Comments

Bet you immediately thought about a guest book at a wedding or funeral.

There are those, but that’s not the guest book I mean.

I’m talking about guest books like the one that lives on the chest in our entry. guest book 2

Our smiling faces are first thing to greet all guests to our home, but everyone who visits us is asked to sign our guest book before leaving.

Beside our smiles, Irish guests hear cead mile failte, an Irish greeting that means “A hundred thousand welcomes.”

Of course, we don’t limit cead mile failte welcomes to Irish only. As you can see in the picture, the plaque is there for all who wish to read.

This is actually our second guest book. The first book ran out of pages before we left Houston.

Interesting thing about guest books…

I rarely look back at the guest book from our wedding and have never looked over the attendees who signed the funeral books from my parent’s services.

However, I do go through our home guest books periodically. And, I smile from fond memories of time spent with friends.

Have you visited someone and signed their guest book? Do you have a guest book for you home?

If not, and you’re interested in starting to use a guest book, there are some great ideas on Pinterest. Most of the ideas are for wedding guest books, but are easily adapted for home guest books.

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