New Neighbors
I really don’t do well in social situations with strangers, so I do my best to avoid them. But when we got new neighbors, I knew I had to go over and welcome them. Our next door neighbors came over to welcome us when we first moved in, so now it my turn to pass on the torch. It can be hard when you’re at a new military base and don’t know anyone. Especially when that Army base is at least a five hour flight from the rest of the country.
To make things less stressful, I just bought a package of break and bake cookies. No need to worry about mixing or cleaning or making sure you don’t poison anyone. When it came time to bake, I was disappointed that I had only bought a 12-pack of extra large cookies. I still kept four of them anyway.
After baking and cooling, I placed the cookies on a paper plate and topped it with aluminum foil. Eight cookies fit perfectly on the plate. I wrapped some twine around it and attached the little card that I made on PicMonkey and printed onto cardstock. On the back of the card I wrote a little message and included my phone number.
It took a bit of convincing to get me out the door, but I finally headed over. Out of all the four places that we’ve lived, this has been the only place where the neighbors came and introduced themselves. I had to keep reminding myself how nice of a gesture it was. I timed it perfectly for 11 am to make sure that no husbands would be home on lunch break. I had no interest in dealing with that awkwardness.
After introducing myself and Adri, handing over the cookies, and chatting for a minute or two, I was back on my merry way home. I was glad that I went with “welcome to the neighborhood” instead of “welcome to Hawaii”, because it turns out that they had literally moved over from the community across the street from us. How anticlimactic. I’ll just consider this time a practice run for when we have a new family PCS here.
Have your neighbors ever stopped by to welcome you to the neighborhood?
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That’s so nice!
No, we’ve never had anyone greet us. I did greet new people one time and like you, I was incredibly nervous. We also brought cookies.
I have never had anyone welcome me. I did bake cookies once for someone’s wife who had just joined him at the duty station. I know that new neighbors will be moving in June. I want to do something to welcome them which will mean stepping outside my comfort zone.
Our neighbors did this when we first moved here, but when we just recently moved into our new house they didn’t, which if I’m being honest…is totally okay with me. HOWEVER! When we moved in, I made potted plants for all our surrounding neighbors and dropped them off with a tag that said “Hello From Your New Neighbors”. I know, I know, I’m annoyed with myself, too, but I spent way too much time on Pinterest!!
Our current neighbors did this, but they brought over a gift. Like an actual housewarming type gift. So I felt very obligated to get them something great! I went with a candle warmer. Aaaaand we have seen each other like twice since then. Haha!!!! But I think it is a nice gesture.
I think this is so sweet! My mom always (ALWAYS) took cookies to the new neighbors and introduced herself. Not gonna lie, when we were getting ready to move from Campbell and we got new neighbors, I didn’t do anything. I know my mother would be embarrassed of me, but I’m hopeful that someone else welcomed them and gave them the dirty on all the other neighbors. 😉