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Holiday Highlights


What a good feeling to be BACK! I haven’t posted a blog since before Christmas, so this is long overdue! Wow, it sure is hard to get back into a routine after taking a break (at least for me anyway!) I had decided that I would take some time off from updating my website over the holidays, but that doesn’t mean that the tea parties ever stopped! In fact, I got to participate in a lot of festive events and projects! Today I will share some of the highlights!

First of all, I wanted to mail surprise Christmas packages to a few families. Of course they had to have something to do with tea, right? So each family got two adorable tin cans, one filled with homemade loose leaf tea bags and the other with homemade Russian Tea Cakes!





I posted a blog once before explaining how I made my own autumn tea blend recipe which you can check out here. The blend I came up with for Christmas was a bit different; I used black tea leaves, thin dried orange slices, orange & lemon zest, dried ginger root, and almond extract. I ordered some empty tea bags to fill with my tea and then I used some card stock to create the tags that I decorated with the first letter of each family's last name.

 

There also needed to be a touch of Disney to the gifts too, so I purchased these Retro Mickey Mouse and friends puzzles to send along with the tea and cakes to the families with kids. Also, look at this awesome Elf wrapping paper!



My friend Tabitha came to stay with me and my family for a week before Christmas which is like her tradition! We always look forward to her December visits! Look what she brought to give to me... this adorable tea pot! That was so thoughtful of her and I love it so much!



During her trip we went to my favorite place the Garden View Tea Room at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort for Afternoon Tea! This was her first time ever at the tea room and it was my first time with a reservation during the holiday season! I have to say it is always a magical experience, but I thought that it was extra special being there with all of the Christmas decorations! Of course, the location really went all out!

  


Another thing we did during Tabitha’s vacation was bake lots of tea party goodies! One night, we tried to make Disney themed treats! Below you can see the outcome (notice the plates displayed to represent Mickey Mouse’s head and ears!) On the left are “Eat Me” sugar cookies from Alice in Wonderland, in the middle are spinach puffs like Kronk made in The Emperor’s New Groove, and on the right are what we tried to recreate from Brave, the dessert that turned the queen into a bear.



I was invited to a fabulous cookie exchange party at my friend’s house one evening! She had an amazing hot chocolate bar set up as well as a fun photo booth display! Plus we got to decorate our own gingerbread men! It was so exciting getting to see what types of cookies each guest brought and we also got to take some of each kind home in cute little candy house boxes! My Russian Tea Cakes were voted “Most Visually Appealing”!

 

I received so many tea party themed Christmas presents! (Everyone really knows what I like! Am I that predictable?) One of my favorites was this Disney apron! It is simply adorable and I already can’t wait to wear it again this Christmas!



It was so fantastic celebrating the holidays with my family and so many great friends! Now I am excited to get back to updating my website more consistently! So stay tuned! 

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