Lighting in my home in the evening is not good, so I edited this one a lot so you could see these lovely faces! I'm thankful for each one!
I love getting out tea cups for the ladies to use. I made my 'Holiday Tea' that is always so popular.
Here is the recipe - I double this for a large group.
Holiday Tea
5 tea bags of regular black tea
2 cups boiling water
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon
6 ounce can of orange juice concentrate
6 ounce can of lemonade concentrate
Pour 2 cups boiling water over the 5 tea bags and let it steep for about 15 minutes. Then add the sugar and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the rest of the ingredients. This makes a concentrate. To serve one cup at a time, add 3 Tablespoons of concentrate to 1 cup of hot water. To serve a group use 1 cup of concentrate to 5 cups of hot water!
Saturday was a puttering day at home. In the evening we went to see the lights in Nottingham. Its our tradition. We'll probably go several times before the season is over.
Sunday was church, and we came home and ate pulled pork sandwiches. The young people went hiking, Tim napped, and I read. We all watched a movie in the evening.
It was very restful. This week will be busier - Sarah's choir will be performing tomorrow afternoon, and then all the choirs will perform in a big concert on Friday night!
I have Christmas shopping to do. We are giving Emma's family an experience this year, rather than toys or games or clothes. We might gift Nate's family with Disney +. Trying to think of things that don't add clutter to small spaces.
I'd love to hear what you do for your adult kids and grandkids! Let's chat in the comments!
8 comments:
Oh Deanna..I am going to make your holiday tea....what a lovely gathering and such a good group photo...It's fun to hear about what everyone is doing this season...enjoy each moment! Thank you for your recipe love!
So nice to spend time with friends. The tea sounds so good. It’s making me think that I should have a Christmas Tea. 🙂 I just came from the blog that is featured above yours today where she shares a Christmas Tea recipe that is similar, but different. Gifts for adult children: a challenge! My daughter will not be thrilled with her gifts and will probably turn them in for cash. My son and family had a Wish List on Amazon so that made things a bit easier. I will be giving an “experience” gift for the boys’ January birthdays. Not as exciting as Disney, though!
Oh, the tea sounds wonderful!
I should be embarrassed to admit it, but we give our adult children money. We ask them to purchase presents from us for the grandchildren and use the rest of the money as they please. We don't get any complaints.😄🌲😄
I am sure that your co-op friends had a lovely time! Thank you for sharing your holiday tea recipe! It sounds like a good thing to have on hand for guests!
It sounds like a quiet and restful weekend, with just enough social engagement. For our adult children, we give a handmade gift and some money. Tim's mother gave all of us money for many years and after she passed away 2 years ago, we took up the custom and everyone seems to like it. This year I'm making linen shawls/scarves for the girls, and Tim made rock bouquets for the guys - I'll show them on my blog after Christmas. They make a striking look in a garden. For the grands we're taking them (the 3 eldest) on an outing to a dinosaur laboratory in January. Under the tree will be small gifts - for the girls I'm putting together a beginning stitchery kit, and I've not yet decided Felix' gift. Our children have expressed that their kids don't really need any more toys and we are all against plastic junk. For the latest 6 month old a simple book and a wooden toy.
Sounds like a lovely weekend, and the Holiday Tea looks delicious!
For our grown daughters and families, we do "experiences" as well. For our local one, we give them a membership to a natural science center nearby. This place has animals, exhibits, trails, and more, and the membership allows them to go as often as they please throughout the year. We make the membership one that's for a few more people than their family, so they can treat friends to this experience with them.
For our faraway daughter and family, we tend to give gift cards to local restaurants, a bowling alley, etc. My son-in-law loves Hilton Garden Inn, and because kids eat free there on certain days (I think), they get more for their money and make a gift card stretch for quite awhile.
Another thing I have considered is giving gift cards to state parks. I know New Hampshire offers those, but I'm not sure about other states. Just a few ideas.
Sometime, not quite sure when, adult kids moved on to money gifts. I think it started with car repairs and then became a tradition (of sorts!). I also add something useful and now that my goddaughter has a house there will be house things, too.
Those sound like lovely gifts. My kids are young adults, late teens, early twenties, and we're finding gift giving to be more difficult. They don't want to ask for things just for the sake of asking (I love that!), but we would like to give them something besides money. So we're working on it!
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