Holiday Tea

Some of the fun of the holidays is to have friends in for tea - and new teacups. Come in, sit a spell, help yourself to a cup of tea and a cookie, or two.

My first tea was served on vintage snack plates - found at Goodwill almost two years ago.  They are from the 50s - with pretty holly and candles on them.

And plenty of room for cookies and candies.  I can imagine these were used at Bridge Clubs - with tiny, fancy sandwiches served to the ladies who came to play Bridge.  Today we are serving Christmas treats.

The cup has a little holly design

So what better teapot for our Earl Grey tea, than a holly teapot.

Santa is here - watching over the candies

A Christmas Elf, made for me by my cousin Cat, from Oregon.

Silver Christmas napkin rings

A little snow for Santa and the trees - and the candy.

Tea for two - on vintage snack sets.

The next tea time was with a different Holly teapot.

And pretty crystal napkin rings

A tea cup with holly and berries

Two Santas came to tea

And some pretty christmas flowers for the tea table

Two christmas tea cups and some christmas goodies

And if you don't have friends in for tea - there is always a time for tea and cookies, a quiet time to relax and think of the holidays past, present and future.

Snow falls on the teddy bear ice skaters

The teacup is from my  cousin Linda, in Oregon.  It was my christmas gift from her this year - so dainty with pretty pink roses

Perfect, with a plate of cookies to choose from

And on the back of the cup - my initial - this cup must have been made just for me.  Thank you, Linda.

Happy Tea Time!

Tonight's sunset

The clouds have been thick all day - and rain most of the day - but as we were driving north to Lynden the skies began to clear and it turned out to be a beautiful day for photos.

There were a few swans in the corn fields

Their call is more distinctive when there are only a few of them

Quick - look over there!!!  I can see it - way up in the tree - can you?  This is how it looked from the road. Look at the tree in the middle of the group of three.

Zoom in - 140x - an eagle's nest.  We didn't see any eagles nearby

But I did capture a hawk that flew right over the car

I still don't know the name of this mountain

The foothills of Mt. Baker - fresh snow - Mt. Baker wasn't out today - snuggled up in a blanket of clouds

We never did find out what Farmer Ben was selling - but since one of our grandsons is named Ben, we had to stop and take a picture

The  sunlight made beautiful reflections in a small pond

Then on the way home the sunset started - it was magnificent

The sun dipped behind and peeked out of the clouds

I've taken photos of these two trees in the spring - they are just as magnificent in the sunset in the winter

Near a golf course - we saw one lone golfer out in the cold - it was 39 degrees

Reflection of the sunset in a puddle on the golf course

And home!

Christmas Table Setting

After we had our wonderful Christmas Eve celebration - we turned right around and got ready for Christmas dinner the next day - with our daughters' families.

This year I decided on the Pink Willow dishes - just like Blue Willow - but in pink.  They are one of my favorite sets of dishes.  I think pink and green are perfect for a Christmas table.

The green goblets were a Christmas gift from Don this year - they fit in perfectly

A little snow is always good on Christmas day - even if we have to pretend

The gravy boat is my newest piece - I bid on it on ebay, went to bed and in the morning I found that I had won in the middle of the night - not one other person had bid on it

Duck napkin rings and green plaid napkins

Divided serving dish and vintage spoons

Little jam pots

It's time to serve up the heaping bowls of food

Mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, kale slaw, turkey, stuffing, gravy, olives, hot rolls,fresh cranberry relish - so many choices.  There was so much food we had to put some on the dinner plates until we could begin passing it around.

And deviled eggs

Merry Christmas Dinner -  always merry!