Getting Ready for Christmas

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.  Yesterday, I was running around shopping, wrapping, cleaning and thinking about how to prioritize the chores.  Then bam,  a gift of sixteen pretty cucumbers and no room in the fridge.

 So now I spend a few hours preparing a batch of cucumber relish.

Well, I can’t complain too much, since now I have a delicious condiment to serve with the holiday ham, etc.  Let me know if you would like the recipe for Million Dollar Relish.

My kids will be happy to take some home and I think my next door neighbor would enjoy a jar.

I did manage to finish the shaggy raggy quilt for my little granddaughter.

Better run now and get back to my Christmas preparations.  Hope yours are going well.

Tea for Santa

Instead of milk and cookies, how about a nice cup of holiday blend tea.  I’ve really been enjoying Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice tea.  It has an aromatic, spicy fragrance and it is quite sweet and delicious with a splash of milk.

How are your Christmas preparations coming along?  Like many of you, I’m struggling with too much to do in too little time.  This makes taking a break for a nice cup of holiday tea even more comforting, doesn’t it?

Christmas Cards

The first Christmas card is believed to have been designed in England in the early 1840s.  Within a couple of decades the Christmas card was fairly common.  I enjoy sending and receiving cards, which usually start to arrive from distant relatives in late November.

How do you like to display your cards?  Sometimes I tape Christmas cards around a doorway so they can be admired each time I walk into the room.

It’s fun to open Christmas cards as a family and take turns reading the messages aloud.

Write your cards with a festive red or green pen.

Use special holiday postage stamps on your envelopes.

It’s fun to save the cards each year and reinvent them into lovely craft items.  Several people that receive hubby’s cross-stitch cards have told me that they display them year after year.  Maybe one year I’ll have time to make handmade paper art cards, but I’ll always try to make time to send cards each Christmas.

 

Royal Albert Highland Thistle

Today I’m showing a lovely teacup that I received as a Christmas gift from my friend Ruth.  It is Royal Albert bone china in the Highland Thistle pattern that was introduced in 1969.

This beautiful footed cup is in the Montrose shape.  It was made in England.

The thistles have such gorgeous color and detail.

Be sure to visit Terri and Martha, the lovely hostesses of Teacup Tuesday.  Also visit Wanda Lee and Pam for Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday.

Tea For Toys

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Newnan-Coweta Magazine “Tea For Toys” event.  It was held at the Holly Cottage Tearoom in Newnan, GA.  Each guest purchased an advance ticket and also donated a new toy to the Coweta County Foster Parent Association.

This English style tearoom has the perfect mix of traditional decor, delicious food, and friendly servers.

There was quite a festive atmosphere at this Christmas tea.  Lovely favors and goody bags were provided for each guest, including a gorgeous paper arts shoe at each place setting.  Each shoe was unique in color and pattern and contained a teabag tied with a pretty bow tucked inside.

Lots of wonderful door prizes were given and a great little booklet to take away filled with recipes and craft ideas.

Of course, the food was delectable.  It included Yorkshire loaf, sandwiches, scone, truffle and fruit, plus a yummy English Sherry Trifle.

 

I’ve already asked Angela (on the left) from Tea With Friends to include me on next years guest list.  I’m really hoping that this will become an annual event. 

You can read more about Tea For Toys at Angela’s blog, just click here.

Noritake Ireland for Teapot Tuesday

After attending the wonderful “Tea For Toys” event in Newnan, GA, I stopped at a couple of thrift stores on the way home.  I found a pretty cup and saucer by Noritake Ireland in the Thornton pattern.

This is a discontinued pattern that was produced between 1980-87. 

The pretty flowers are very pale pink and white with a lattice work background, but I was first attracted by the wonderful shape of this cup.

I found several other items including a couple of Christmas With Victoria books ($2.49), a lovely glass footed bowl ($1.50) and a pretty Lenox Christmas Tree dish (.99).

The Noritake teacup was also a bargain at $1.99.  It’s fun to shop at thrift stores and Goodwill, isn’t it?

You can visit the lovely blogs of Terri and Martha the hostesses of Teacup Tuesday to see their posts and links.  Also visit Wanda Lee and Pam for Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday.

Gingerbread House

Had I but one penny in the world, thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread.     - William Shakespeare (Love’s Labour’s Lost)

Gingerbread has been around since ancient times, but the first gingerbread man is credited to Queen Elizabeth I.  She presented visiting dignitaries with their likeness baked in gingerbread.  It can also take many other forms such as a dark, spicy cake.

For as long as I can remember, gingerbread in some form has been part of my Christmas.  When I was a child, my Mom always baked gingerbread men, which she decorated with white royal icing.  Later, I would bake different kinds of gingerbread cookies for my family, including chocolate gingerbread men.

Now, my younger daughter puts together a gingerbread house with my grandsons each year.  It has become a holiday tradition in our home.  Most of the time the gingerbread house is an all inclusive kit and that makes it much easier and more fun for everyone. 

 

The boys will usually help for a while and they have fun placing the candies on the house.  When they have tired of decorating the gingerbread house, they move on to another activity leaving their Aunt Cynthia to finish the job.  This year the construction turned out to be a little tricky, since the icing took so long to set that the roof and various candies kept sliding off.

We like to display our gingerbread house over the holidays, so of course it gets too stale to eat, but the boys enjoy breaking it up and eating a few of the candies on the first day of the new year.  Maybe I’ll try making some gingerbread snowflake cookies this year so that we can have some edible gingerbread. 

And for a little trivia, did you know that a gingerbread house was made in Poland that was 11 1/2 feet high.  Think that’s big - it didn’t come close to the World's Largest Gingerbread House built by Roger Pelcher in 2006 at Mall of America in Minnesota.  It was more than 67 feet tall and 1,496 square feet.  Over 14,000 pounds of gingerbread was used in the construction.