tea time

hold on to your socks, folks, i'm going to write an entry that is not about caleb!

last year, when i was still pregnant and optimistic, my friend R asked me if i wanted to coordinate the food for our church's Christmas tea, and naive little creature that i was, i said yes. i also hosted a table, each table has a different theme, mine was snowflakes, since i miss cold winters and snow so much:
not a very good shot, i know, i was mostly trying to get the guests, but i was so busy with the food i forgot to take a picture of my table all set up and pretty.

i don't regret it, and will be more than happy to do it again next year if they want me to, but it was more work than i had mentally pictured, and caleb was not the napper that i had assumed he would be when December rolled around and it was time to get down and get serious about it. but for all the work and late nights it meant, it was a blast, and something i felt actually competent at, a notion that was apparently supported by the positive feedback i got afterwards.

the odd thing is that i have only been introduced to 'tea' in the sense of a tea service in the past couple of years, and really consider myself to be fairly clueless about the whole thing, and if you'd tried to tell me years ago i would be interested in it at all i would have laughed, i was simply not girly enough to sit around sipping from delicate little tea cups and eating delicate little tea sandwiches, my pinky proudly in the air. heck i carried a wallet instead of a purse until about 4 years ago.

but i really like it, the food (well that one wasn't difficult) and the prettiness and the whole idea of just slowing life down a bit and spending time with friends. it's a great thing to do with guests when the come or to spend time with a friend you haven't seen in a while. i just took my friend C there last weekend, i think it was her first time going to tea, which made it all the more fun. i've only been to one place to far, Tea at 1024, but i like it so much, i have pretty much stuck with it, taking my mom and mom in law there, and i had my baby shower there as well. they let you pick out your tea cup and saucer, they have hats and boas to don if you so choose, the atmosphere is great with lots of flowers, antique dresses, original art, the food is really, really good, and i've never had a bad cup of tea. here is C looking stunning in red:
some friends here even thought it could be my next career venture, tea catering, and it's not that bad of an idea, honestly, you work when you want to, you don't when you don't, the overhead cost is minimal, and i really enjoy it. it's not anything i would leap to right away, and i don't think i'd find it as fulfilling as social work, but it's definitely an idea to keep on the back burner for when the kid (or kids by then) are in school and i'm wondering, well, now what.

my mom even got in to the act after hearing me prattle on about tea-things for so long she got me two tea cups and said it was to start my collection:
yeah, i think this is officially the year i accept my femininity, it doesn't get much more girly than giving birth and starting a tea cup collection.