Z GIRL wrote:

It is a small Thank you out of appreciation for the invitation to dine with
you. I always take a gift when invited to a friends or family house for
dinner.

I always take a nice bottle of wine, even when I go to my mother's for dinner.
She does the same. She does not drink wine herself but always serves it to
guests, though I sometimes get back the same wine that I took. It is not
exactly the same bottle because she figures that if I bought that type of wine
I must like it.