So for those who don’t already know, I’m a proud Nigerian (*waves flag*), and will forever shout it from the rooftops! But as much as I love my culture and many of its traditions, one thing I was not looking forward to when pregnant, were the many visitors I knew we would have when the baby had arrived.
Now don’t get me wrong, I was very excited about everyone meeting baby girl, but three things in particular had me a little anxious:
1) Hosting guests whilst feeling extremely tired
2) Dealing with unsolicited advice
3) Feeding guests
and it’s point number three I’ll be addressing in this post.
Let me explain…
In Nigerian culture (as well as many others), serving food is a demonstration of care and wellbeing. Growing up my mum would ensure that even a guest who would only be visiting for 5 minutes, would at the very least have something to drink or snack on. So whilst I knew that most visitors would not expect food from a family with a newborn, I couldn’t quite get to grips with the idea of people visiting our home and essentially… fasting! Sounds far-fetched but that’s how I saw it!!!
So after several failed attempts at trying to remind myself that guests would not be expecting food, I came up with a solution that would give me the peace of mind I was searching for… A DIY HOT DRINKS BAR! – The perfect inexpensive self-serve and minimal effort answer to my prayers!
Here’s how I made it:
Prefer video? Be sure to watch my YouTube video (below) where you’ll see the drinks bar in action!
Serving Trolley – Amazon
Hot water dispenser (boils faster than a kettle!) – Amazon
1 0.5l Jar (holding milk pods) – Ikea
Milk Pods – Amazon
1 Glass Tumbler (holding hot chocolate & latte satchets) – Ikea
2 Spice jars (holding sprinkles & marshmallows) – Ikea
4 Spice jars (holding tea, coffee, sugar and teaspoons) – Ikea
Milk Heater/Frother – Amazon
Tea Cups – John Lewis
Saucers – John Lewis
Biscuit Jar – Amazon
Such a great idea! I have been looking for ideas for hosting. I was raised the same way that when guest come, you have something to offer them. I am so huge on hospitality and now that I am getting married in June (so happy!) I have been trying to make sure I have my home guest ready at all times because of the extension in family and the expectations. We know his parents will visit for longer periods because they are not from the U.S. (neither is he) and we know that we want to be guest friendly because he was raised the same way. Thanks for posting this. It looks so fancy and expensive lol. I didn’t realize how affordable the was to do but ikea has such good options for that. Thanks for sharing!!
Author
Thank you Jiani – so good to know you can relate! And most importantly of all a huge congrats on your upcoming wedding! Yes it’s nt expensive at all, I prefer to save my coins!!! Haha
Thanks for sharing this. I also had my daughter in January so I can completely relate to this. Great post & thanks for the links as well
Author
Awww congrats mama! My absolute pleasure x