La Fleur de Fevrier - Violettes

How could I let February pass by without a tribute to its lovely little flower - the humble violet?  That would be impossible since violets are my favorite flower!

So delicate and sweet, they are the perfect decoration tea things.  (For full disclosure, I have mixed in some pansies with my violets - but after all, the are really called Violas.)

The hot chocolate station has become a tea tray.  Much more springlike don't you think?

These beauties deserve a closer look.

Can you believe that these were all gifts - including my 'new modern' teacup that I received on my fiftieth birthday more than 20 years ago!

What could be better than a lot of violets? More violets!

One day one of my daughters pointed out to me that I was a violet person and she was a rose person.  She was right!  So I traded her my rose dessert set for her violet set and I have been very happy since!

This little pitcher, a gift from another daughter, was one of my first violet pieces.

Well, I have more pretty violet things, but I'll save them for next February.

Meanwhile, select some special tea, find a flowered teacup, and join me for teatime!

And above all - THINK SPRING

Our Family Tradition of a St. Nicholas Tea

(This is a re-post from Dec 4, 2007)

When you use the word 'Tea' today it conjures up elegant parties. Well, in our case, it was mostly cocoa and cookies and conversation. We started in 1966 or 1967 and sometimes through the years we did get spiffy now and then.

You might ask "Why a 'St. Nicholas Day' Tea?" I'm glad you asked! Why, to combat heresy, secularism, and commercialism and have fun at the same time. That's why!

St. Nicolas was a real man - a Bishop who lived in the 300's. He was a wealthy man who came to love Jesus and wanted to follow him closely. So he took Jesus' advice to the rich young ruler: "go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." He also took to his heart Jesus' teaching about how to give : "But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." Many people benefited from his secret giving and because they were curious about who was being so kind, they found him out!

He went to be part of the council of Nicea and helped formulate the beautiful Nicean Creed and died shortly after. That's the basic story. He made such an impression on people and was loved so greatly and for so long, that many legends have been added and it's hard to sort all that out. It's also hard to sort out how that good man has been morphed by America into Santa Claus! Secularists have such glee in the fact that Santa has eclipsed the real reason for the season. But if you look deeply you can still see a glimmer of 'Santa's' roots - giving in secret without expecting to get anything in return. Which of course is a teaching of Jesus. It's really all quite amusing.


Back to the tea party. The centerpiece was always our angel chimes. With the lights off, the spinning angels made beautiful twirling patterns on the ceiling. Very atmospheric! We would talk about Christmas things and use this as an opportunity to correct any misconceptions.


As some of the children became older, we expanded our horizons. Sometimes we would invite cousins for a more formal tea, and they would put on a hilarious puppet show for the younger ones. The puppets were mostly handmade and so was the scenery and even the script. We only had one play - Little Red Riding Hood. It became funnier with every performance.


The photos here are all from the 1980's. The little girls pictured grew up and did the show for the children of the original puppeteers!

We always ended the party with choosing names for 'Kris Kringle'. It was sort of a game we played for the rest of Advent. More on that in the next post.

The Floating Tea Party Wears Green

St. Patrick's Day, and one of my daughters is still under the weather.  So the floating tea party puts on the 'wearing of the green' and makes a visit.

We had cupcakes, chocolates and green jelly beans in the boxes.  Paddy O'Cinnamon was offering his green jellies from the jar.

We had a few gate-crashers fresh in from a  romp in the woods.  But we put Mr. Bill to the task of barring the way.  If you want to come to my tea parties, you have to wash your faces and comb your fur.

My Floating Tea Party

Mr. Bill says that he has heard of floating dice games, but this is the first time he's run across a floating tea party.

I say that sometimes good ideas are not necessarily planned , but just happen!  My little Valentine vignette that lived on my kitchen island made a few rounds in February.  I just popped the bear, the bird, the dog, the valentine cards, and the plate rack into a shopping bag.  Some cookies, some fruit and a few tea bags were tossed in with them and off we went.  The first stop was our daughter Collette and the grand kids in Illinois around Valentines Day and on the 28th we had a "Good-bye to February Tea"  at my daughter Karen's house where she has been under-the-weather and shut in for a while.  I even wore a hat for that one. 

It was so much fun Mr. Bill and I are planning more.  He suggested and 'Ides of March Tea' because we have a bust of Julius Caesar.  However, Mr. Bill is not in favor of togas.  I'm thinking of a 'St. Patrick's Tea'.  We probably will do both.

BTW:  The books on the table are from the Tea Shop Mystery series by Laura Child.