Sorry it has been so long since I posted, but life and mostly Christmas has intervened.

I wanted to give you a recounting of our family Christmas Tea held at my house the week after Thanksgiving.

The first hurdle was organizing with co-grandmother Tamala and our other, shorter co-hosts, Lyla and Wren. So we met surreptitiously during Thanksgiving. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t much of a secret. We discussed the menu and assigned tasks, then adjourned for pie.

Tamala was in charge of all the sweets, which included tiny Bundt cakes, fancy cookies, and chocolate candies. Plus she got the makings of salmon sandwiches. I handled the other sandwiches, scones, strawberries and the tea.

Sourcing the tea proved troublesome. There is not a single leaf of loose tea online. But I did find more strainers and tiny tongs for sugar cubes. And that one Christmas gift I needed.

Losing focus is part and parcel of my life now.

I’m like that dog: walk…walk…squirrel!

Anyway I finally found loose tea at Central Market. Those of you who already knew that could have told me sooner.

The only other holy grail item was clotted cream. I’ve watched Erin make it, so I googled a recipe, but they were all different than she had done. They called for a certain kind of heavy cream that was NOT ultra pasteurized. And of course the only kind I could find was the kind that put regular pasteurized to shame. What to do?

First I bought Cool Whip as a backup (admit it, you would have done it, too.)

Then I googled Central Market. Yes, of course they had clotted cream, from England, in jars, and yes, they would deliver that night.

It cost me $75 to have three tiny jars of clotted cream delivered to my house.

That was also the night before the tea and for some unfathomable reason, we thought it would be helpful for Lyla and Wren to spend the night with me so we could start making things. And so I put them to work. We were like a Dickensian sweat shop. Wren setting the table, Lyla making scones until we were all covered in flour (no, they would not be warm. I can hear Erin sighing.) But by this point I just had to get her done.

We fell into bed. We awoke early and put the upstairs together (slumber party, remember.) Then back to the kitchen and started the tea sandwiches. Tamala arrived, thank God, and we began an assembly line. She did the salmon and our new addition: tomato/basil/cream cheese. (These were delicious, by the way.)

I made the cream cheese/cucumber mixture and Lyla slathered it on loaves of white bread. I cut off the crusts, cut them in thirds and stacked them on a plate under a damp tea towel. Ditto the chicken salad. But then we hit a snag.

We ran out of bread.

Luckily (or unluckily, whichever) Tam had forgotten her dress at home and husband Richard brought it. I will take this moment to point out, with thanks and admiration, that he retrieved my leaf blower from the shed and cleared off the front porch and walkway just because it needed doing. Then he went to the store and got more bread. My hero.

Suffice it to say that all the food got on the table by 3:00 and we were able to greet our guests with champagne and sparkling cider. I found out later that we ran out of champagne and Corey made a secret run to get more. Another hero.

Our guest list included family, mostly moms and daughters, a couple of special friends, Adam, Corey and Corey’s mom, Cindy, and Lyla and Wren’s best friends and their mothers. We loved sharing the warmth and ritual of tea with a new generation.

Some other highlights? Fascinators (see Molly, Sierra and Leigh Ann above) were the perfect accompaniment to English tea. Also Lyla regaled us with the history of tea and some fun facts (did you know that tea is older than coffee, wine or even beer?) And Wren led the hilarious Christmas ornament exchange, which is a non-traditional tradition for us.

Next year’s tea (oh, yes, there will be a next year) will be simpler and cheaper since I will just walk myself into Central Market and buy jars of clotted cream, right out of the cooler, the way God intended.

For now, I think I will go make a pot of tea, the cinnamon/orange one I loved.

Also I have some Cool Whip, if anyone needs it.