Holiday Tea at Something Special

On Saturday, I had the wonderful opportunity of attending a Holiday Tea at one of Newnan's finest old antebellum homes, the Banks-St. John-Meyer house, known around here as the special events facility Something Special.

At the tea are, from left, Joanie, Cynda, Robin and me. I've known Joanie for years, and she is such a joy to be around. I don't believe I've ever heard a negative word come out of her mouth (what must that be like?), and this was the second time she and I have enjoyed tea together at Something Special. Cynda is another tea-loving friend I got to know through this blog and then discovered we were going to the same church, so we cross paths a lot of places. Cynda's friend Robin is a well-known pianist in this area, and though I've had the pleasure of enjoying her music many times before, I'd never had a personal conversation with her and found her just delightful. It was so lovely to get to enjoy a Christmas tea with these ladies!

As soon as we were seated we were served Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup and Cheese Straws. What a wonderful, fresh-tasting soup this was, and of course we all agreed we absolutely love cheese straws in any shape, form or fashion. The cheese straws I make are never this fancy, so I appreciated the prettiness of these!

Our horizontal tiered server was one of those old-fashioned ones that has one tier up top and one on either side. It was filled with delicious sandwiches and sweets!

The sandwiches were terrific, and they included Cucumber, Pimento Cheese, and Chicken Salad on Raisin Bread. I've never served chicken salad on raisin bread before, but I thought it was a great combination. And just after I got through saying the other day that Cucumber Sandwiches are always my favorite, I agreed with my table mates that the Pimento Cheese Sandwiches were simply awesome. We agreed there had to be some secret ingredient in these. (I mean to ask the owner, but this may be a trade secret, I realize…)

The Cranberry Scones were fresh and hot, and though I failed to get a picture of the orange marmalade that was served with them, I must say that the combination was great!

I was surprised by how many varieties of fruit were on the tray: grapes, strawberries, blackberries, oranges, kiwi (not showing, but they were there). And oh, those pastel cream cheese mints (I believe that's what they were) were melt-in-your-mouth good. I haven't had those in years, and they were such a welcome treat. I didn't get a good closeup of the iced carrot cake (in the decorative paper cups), but it was a hit as well. As is often the case at afternoon tea, I felt myself getting full way too soon!

I loved that our plates and cups and saucers were all Christmas designs. We all had pots of hot water and got to select our tea bags from a variety of flavors in baskets that were passed around. I selected Twinings English Breakfast tea to begin with, then later switched to a berry-flavored Stash tea. There were plenty of varieties to make everyone happy.

Tea was served in several areas of the house, but this is the large room where my friends and I enjoyed tea. Our table was the round one at lower right.

The photo of me and my friends, by the way, was graciously taken by the owner himself, Mike Meyer. Mike is a class act if ever there was one, and I'm so happy to have gotten to know him over the years. On Saturday, he showed me he still has hanging in his library a copy of a newspaper article I wrote about him and Something Special way back in 2001. Imagine!

The whole house was beautifully decorated for Christmas. For sheer holiday beauty, I think it's rather hard to top a red velvet sofa and a gracious mantel in an old antebellum home!

And this sideboard and other pieces of furniture displayed some of the many glasses used for serving. But check out the cranberry glass up top, which actually lined several walls in one room. It's a treat to get to enjoy a delicious holiday tea with friends, and it is definitely "Something Special" to get to do so in such elegant surroundings!