Monday, December 12, 2011

Christmas Tea with My Sister & Friends!

On Saturday, my very special guests for tea were my sweet sister Rhonda and some of her high school friends. Here are, from left, Rhonda, Anslea, Tina, Rachel and Angie. These "little girls" I once knew have grown up to become such beautiful (and fun!) young women.

And just because we rarely seem to have our picture made together, here are me and Rhonda. I was on Facebook one night back in October when I saw an interesting discussion develop. One of the girls told Rhonda wouldn't it be fun if they all came to *my* house for their annual Christmas party this year and if I hosted a tea for them! I grinned when I saw their comments, but of course I chimed in and told them I'd be glad to do it, because a) I love any excuse for a tea party! and b) I can't think of anything I wouldn't do for my sister if she wanted me to. (If you're blessed to have the kind of sister I do, you know just what I mean!)


Here are some photos of the table before we tucked into the food. I forgot to get closeups of the teapots, but that's OK because we had two Christmas teas that were new to me, and I'll tell you about them later this week because they were quite well received!

So what did we eat? Well, first of course were the scones, served with jam and whipped cream. I made two kinds, Currant Scones and White Chocolate & Almond Scones. I love using my Nordic Ware pan that makes 16 mini scones, because guests will try both flavors if I keep the scones small.

Rhonda insisted on helping make some of the sandwiches, and when I saw (and tasted) hers, I was glad. She made these cute Egg Salad Sandwiches in Christmas tree shapes with olive slices for ornaments. Pretty!

She also made her Chicken Salad Sandwiches using these soft, delicious brown rolls. I love Chicken Salad but it is always the most time-consuming thing to make, so I was lucky she volunteered for these!

I made the Olive-Walnut Spread Sandwiches (in wreath shapes) and Cucumber and Dill Sandwiches (in triangles).

On this tree-shaped tiered server you can see we also had the Ham Salad Sandwiches I wrote about here on Saturday. And for our sweets, on the bottom tier, we had Lemon Madeleines and this Cranberry Bread.

My mother contributed this Christmas green plate of her famous Divinity. It truly is some heavenly stuff!

I also decided we needed more chocolate so I served these Cappuccino Crinkle cookies. So easy, so delicious.

And last but not least, we had White Chocolate & Raspberry Mini-Trifles! I had been eager to try serving something in these little glasses like I've seen in Tea Time magazine. When Ross had a set of 8 (with matching teaspoons) on sell for just $5.49 recently, I took it as a sign. These really seemed to be a hit, and I liked the small size — especially after all the other yummy stuff on our menu. To make them, I simply layered grocery store pound cake, this white chocolate filling recipe and fresh raspberries. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, and I so loved being able to enjoy a Christmas teatime with my sister and her sweet friends!

15 comments:

  1. What a delightful tea and all of the tea goodies look delicious!

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  2. We had so much fun! Thanks so much for a wonderful Christmas tea with friends. We love you!

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  3. What a fantastic Christmas Tea you all pulled together. Looks absolutely perfect! P.S. I know what you mean about sisters.... I have three, and they are treasures.

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  4. What a beautiful tea party and wonderful way to celebrate the Christmas Season! The food looked scrumptious, and the tablescape so pretty!

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  5. I wish I was your sister! Everything looked wonderful I have enjoyed having teas with my sisters for years and it is always a special time. Merry Christmas

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  6. What fun! I'm sure they had a wonderful time and felt like they'd had a marvelous tea time experience. I love that you served the mini trifles on your new-to-you poinsettia tray! :)

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  7. Hello Angela
    You put together a fabulous Christmas tea for your sister and friends.
    I plan to make Madeleines later this week and how I wish I had the mini pans - the large ones are just that - too large!
    Judith

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  8. What a festive and special tea! Spied an Old Country Roses pot! Loved the wreath sandwiches! Made my mouth water!
    Ruth

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  9. Oh my goodness! What a lovely event. And your food and decor are perfect!!!

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  10. Your tea was lovely! I know that your sister and friends will treasure your time spent together.

    The food looks scrumptious. You are so creative and have the neatest tips. Your tiered server is so fun and pretty.

    Thanks for sharing with us and taking so many great photos.
    Love, Carol B.

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  11. How much fun. The presentation awesome.

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  12. Just knew you would find a perfect use for your poinsettia tray. Everything looked delightful, and surely fun was had by all. Thank you for sharing.

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  13. Your Christmas tea for Rhonda and her friends looked wonderful - scrumptious food and pretty decor. Just the sort of tea that happy guests would want to linger over.

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  14. Angela, your special tea looks wonderful. Oh how I would have loved sitting at this table and of course tasting everything. What a lucky sister to have you to serve she and her friends a very special tea.

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  15. Hello Angela, what a lovely tea -
    everything looked so pretty and the photos were beautiful. I know your sister and friends had a great time! Thanks for sharing,
    Joanie

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