Tea Tuesday

What can I say, I just can't give it up, life without Tea Tuesday would just not be the same!

Here's my holiday tea set up. My tables tend to be more simple than some but then this was a simple holiday tea.

We have our nutcracker centerpiece surrounded by bells of white and red and a simple white and red wreath bordering. We have our Royal Albert Old Country Roses large teapot and medium teapot standing ready for the Earl Gray Winter White tea and our pot of hot water. I only have the one teapot warmer so used my Swedish Coffee Hotten for the other warmer.

Moving around the table...

We used our Old Country Roses china as well as flatware. We used little silver plated teaspoons with beautiful little flowers. We had sugar cookies and Belgian chocolates ...

we had almond chicken salad sandwiches...

and we had honey roasted peanuts.

We had fun with family, look it's Steve!!!

Son Chad, his wife Kristy, and baby Hunter...

Daughter Heidi and Little Companion...

Tea concluded with everyone taking their little gift bag with teapot dough ornaments and little nutcracker.

Happy Tea Tuesday!!!

Christmas 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

Out and about

So there we were,

Little Companion and I.

Her mommy had to work late.

Visitors are coming next week.

We could cook.

We could clean.

OR...

We could go see what the locals were doing down at the mall the weekend before Christmas.

Oh ya, we chose option #3 and off we went.

(A little traveling music here.)

Now I headed for Macy's thinking that the weekend before Christmas Macy's would have Santa, right, well, no Virgina (Miracle on 34th Street, not directed to you Grandma, love you!) there was no Santy there.

So out into the mall hustle and bustle we went. Never did run into the jolly old elf, although we did only go about halfway through the mall, but we did run into....

A carousel. HOW FUN IS THAT!!!!

Little Companion was ready to accept she could not ride it, but I said well, let's check it out.

Two bucks later and about a 5 minute wait we were in carousel dream world!

It's moments like this that you just love this child's animation and zest for life.

Not necessarily the moments when she makes you climb to the TOP of the carousel, HA!

Remembering the past fondly, looking forward to a bright tomorrow and loving LIVING IN THE MOMENT!

Dough art ornaments

Okay, so we have the teacup cookie cutters so we have to make some teacup ornaments, right?

RIGHT!!!!

Recipe.... hummm, no oven temp anywhere in this book, hummm, we'll go somewhere between 275 and 325, sounds good to me

Salt, warm water, dissolve...

Flour

Knead...

cut out shape...

Don't forget to poke the holes with a straw BEFORE you cook...

Painting...

Along about this time I was starting to get a tad bit worried, the ones above are mine, the ones below are my 6-year-old Little Companion's.

Now mine were looking mayhaps a tad bit boring compared to a 6-year-old's. Well, we couldn't have that. HAD to buckle down, try harder!!!

Finished up, coat of varnish..

TA DA!!!

Mine above, Little Companion's below.

(Hers still look better!!)

Happy Friday!

Walk though Bethlehem

Took a walk through Bethlehem this past weekend. This is our guide conversing with the mean Roman Guard.

Had to stop by the publican's office to pay our taxes...

We saw shepherds in the field and wise men bearing gifts...

We also saw that a baby had been born in a manger (photos did not turn out) whose birth would still influence this world in 2009.

Took a walk through Bethlehem...

Simplify (part 2)

Traditional (started this year) filling of the candy jar.

First, try to delegate as much as possible.

I find my Little Companion helpful at times like this.

(I also found out that Little Companion does not like this kind of candy and really didn't approve of it going in the candy dish at all. I told her it looked Christmassy and that we would be putting it in the candy dish.)

Step 2

Step 3

Whewwww, all done.

We didn't even have to break a sweat on that one!

Tea Things Tuesday

Tea Things Tuesday
Hosted by Kim at
http://shabbypinkandpretty.blogspot.com
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Thank you Kim for hosting this weekly event. We have had fun getting to see all the different tea sets and things over the weeks. It has also been a real treat to get to meet the different ladies. Again, thank you so much!
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Today in our last formal Tea Things Tuesday I am sharing my Royal Albert Old Country Roses.
I love this pattern for the versatility, it is classy yet comfortable. I have new pieces and old pieces and enjoy them all. Here we have our large teapot.

Our tea for one. Sometimes I pull the tiny teapot off and use it with a regular teacup.

We also have a coffee pot to go with the set.

Back in the right-hand corner I have a medium teapot. I would like to eventually acquire a small teapot in the pattern, but this will hold me for now!

This will be the set I use for my holiday tea this year. Classy yet comfortable.

Happy Tea Things Tuesday!!!!

Lighting the fireplace

As we are now well into the holiday season,

I have decided that it is time for the traditional lighting of the fireplace.

(Shoo pocket poochie!)

This will be our second year lighting the traditional yuletide tea light in our fireplace.

(insert Christmas carol here... hum if you have to or kazoo would be even better a little dashing through the snow)

Ready...

Go!!!!

Applause all around.

Might I suggest, if you are feeling holiday stress,

Simplify.

Tea Things Tuesday

Kim is our hostess for Tea Things Tuesday. Her wonderful blog can be found at http://shabbypinkandpretty.blogspot.com. Thank you Kim!
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As we are winding up our Tea Things Tuesdays, I'm going to share a couple of items I will be using for my holiday tea this year.

First we have these cute little teapot place card holders.



Here they are all lined up and ready for duty.



Next, we have our teapot cookie cutters,



They came in 3 different sizes in this cute little tin to protect them. You can do things like...



Dough art teapots. These are all ready to be painted and then will be given as part of my hostess gifts (or that's the plan at this point). They may even make a few cookies for my tea, ah yes very useful. Happy Tea Things Tuesday!

Snow dudes

LOOK! LOOK! I'VE GOT THE SPIRIT!!


LET THE FESTIVITIES BEGIN!!!

(new header picture)