Hospitality, Friendship, Encouragement

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Our Christmas Tea

 Freshly baked scones,

 Mock Devonshire Cream, homemade Lemon Curd, and organic strawberry jam.


 Everyone brought food - these are always popular...


 Cream Cheese and jalapeno jam...

 Lindsay brought our favorite tea...


Mmmm Fererro Roche and a clementine...

 I wanted the tables to have a fine restaurant feel...white table clothes and soft lamps for ambient lighting...

Sarah and a friend busy with their activity bags...
 
 The lovely ladies from Hospitality Lane!  Becky did a great post about the tea today too!


 Gift bags from our project for families at CHOP...


 Becky and I checking them all out after the clean up...


We hope these bags will bless the families that have children in the ICU...it's always hard when your children are sick but so difficult when they are very ill at during the holidays all the emotions are just so tender...

My heart is full.

I felt very casual about this tea in many ways - I didn't stress about it...good thing, too.  I got a decent cold this past weekend, that has be tired out.  God knew.  However it was lovely - I loved the way the tables looked.  I know that everyone had a good time and that they really enjoyed putting together those gift bags.  What a special group of women we have at our church.  We missed a few ladies who were unable to be there, but there is always next year.

If you are interested in my scone recipe and the Mock Devonshire cream you can find them here.  Oh, and the ever popular Christmas Tea.  Here is the recipe:

5 teabags of black tea

2 cups boiling water

2 cups of sugar

6 oz can of frozen orange juice concentrate

6 oz can of frozen lemonade concentrate

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/4 tsp of cloves (I leave this out)


Steep the teabags in the boiling water for 15 minutes - you are making a strong tea base for this drink.  Remove the teabags and add the sugar while the water is still hot, so the sugar dissolves.  Add the frozen juice concentrates and the spices. Mix well.  This makes a concentrate.  If you are making it for a group event the proportions are 1 cup of concentrate to 5 cups of HOT water.  But if you are leaving the concentrate in the fridge and just want to use it for a hot spiced drink you can use 3 tablespoons concentrate to 1 cup of water.  It is delicious and tastes similar to a spiced cider!

Off to run an errand of love and then home to rest on the couch while I read to the kids and help them with their math.  I am also keeping an eye on Facebook today, my niece is having her first baby, Logan today!  Since they are on the other side of the continent we are keeping in touch online.  Also I want to wish my niece in love Alicia a very happy birthday!  She is going to be an auntie for the first time and she and Logan will share a birthday!

What a beautiful life I have!  I hope you are similarly blessed!
 

10 comments:

  1. What a lovely post!! I think you have a beautiful life too and I thank you for your wishes, as I think I have one too!

    May you have a wonderful day!
    Jennifer

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  2. For someone who is feeling ill... you sound wonderful. Thank you for letting your heart spill over to me this morning... Mine too is full and I think we should all just keep spilling and spilling all over blogland! What a blessing to know you Deanna.

    ~~Debbie

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  3. Everything looks so lovely and delicious! And the tables were so beautiful too.

    I hope you're feeling better soon. :o)

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  4. First of all, feel better! Those colds knock one for a loop. I'm so waiting for the cure.

    Oh my, I can't begin to tell you how beautiful the tables look...the lamps are simply wonderful and the white tablecloths...too lovely. You did a marvelous job.

    Such a worthy cause to let people know that they are being thought of at Christmastime. It always feels like such an assault to have things go south at Christmas and most especially when it involves children. Well...your hearts are so tender to those less fortunate.

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  5. Sweetie, I just popped over from Becky's place and you did a bang up job on the tea. Everything was absolutely beautiful.

    God bless ya and have a marvelous day!!! :o)

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  6. Deanna, you ARE living the life! What a perfectly elegant tea - treats and table settings! Truly a blessing - and your gift bags, too! Very much like the First Responders Baskets we did this week - except we do our ladies' tea in January!
    Joy!
    Kathy

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  7. Deanna, bless your sweet heart for doing such a lovely job of decorating and baking and organizing and hosting and giving, all the while suffering with a yucky cold! Hope you're feeling better real soon!

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  8. Those tables look so beautiful!

    That's so neat that Alicia and Logan share a birthday! How fun!

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  9. Oh my goodness Deanna! That all look just lovely and love those lamps on the table. You did such a good job!
    xo
    Caroline

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  10. What a great ministry you have going here.

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