Sunday, December 23, 2018

Christmas Adam Tea 2018

My Mom LOVED Christmas and she loved tea parties, tea cups, china, and tea pots. This  wasn't always my "cup of tea," however, over the years I've come to love tea time too. There were years the kids and I had daily tea at  3 p.m.

Mom began a Christmas Adam Tea tradition.  I decided I wanted to carry on the tradition up here in Alaska.  Sherri, Amy, Harmony and Elizabeth are missing, but most of our girls are here. Larissa is in TX this year for Christmas, we miss her...and we aren't coveting the sun or anything like that. ::snort::

I got up bright and early and set the table with Mom's tablecloth and some of her pretties. Does anyone know HOW to fix holes in lace?

I set out an assortment of tea pots so we could each make our own pot of tea. 

I always have an assortment of teas and hot chocolate drinks. 

Krista folded the napkins and tucked Grams' tea spoons into them. I may polish the silver before the next tea party. ::snort:: 

We headed to church. Don't you love church at Christmas time? Stacia and I were in the nursery. I was a bit bummed to miss church - but happy I could wear my faded jeans and my red Santa hat with the tiara. ::wink::  Lot at this plate of goodies we scored at church - it was a nice addition to the tea treats.

This year's tea attendees....Next year Larissa will be here and Baby D3 will be a female and join us. 
Bre (daughter #1), Bella (Bre's daughter) Arielle (daughter #3), Benny (Arielle's)
Krista (daughter #2) and Stacia  - wait I'm there too. It's too late to try to blog. 

Bella got to use a pink cup and saucer from Stacia's childhood tea set. It was a gift from my Mom. 
The Girls

The guys went over to BreZaak's and watched The Hobbit. Benny stayed with us - his very first Christmas Adam tea party. 

Today marks the 36th week of BreAnne's pregnancy. We are excited. Gideon was born at 35 weeks. Bre has one more shot this week and then she's just waiting for Baby D3. Our local hospital won't let her deliver here unless she makes it 37 weeks. One more week to go. We really don't want her to have to go to Anchorage.
I never looked this pretty in my 3rd trimester!
Of course we wore MuMus in the 80's
 The girls used the time together to plot their Gingerbread plans for this year's New Year's Eve competition.  I hope the guys are coming up with a plan. 

Bella (2 yrs 8 months) & BreAnne
 Bre and Bella headed home when Bella was ready to go-go. The rest of us decided to watch In-Lawfully Yours. This is a funny movie. At least we think it is funny. We watch it on Netflix, it can also be rented from Amazon Prime Video.

The guys got home and played a round of Dominion. Michael won. Nolan made it through the day of work and all the afternoon's activities.

Stacia is watching YouTube, Krista is reading, I'm done blogging and going to join them. 

I'm not going to pretend this hasn't been a hard holiday season. When Thanksgiving came, I remembered it was my last really lucid conversation with Mom and she was moving in with Will and Sherri until she was well again.  Dec 3rd my brother called and told me Mom wasn't doing well and they were going to take her to the hospital.   Facebook reminded me, Stacia and I were flying to OR last year on the 4th to spend time with Mom.  She recognized us the day we arrived, but not so much after that. She passed away on Dec 12th. Her funeral was December 22nd. For some reason, I didn't want to begin hitting the "second year" without mom for birthdays, holidays, milestones....and yet, here we are.  It's a loss unlike any other...probably not worse or easier....just unlike others. I have felt the loss of her prayers and our frequent calls. But it was TIME for me to find fun things to do to remember and honor her memory....I have an ornament on the tree for our 7 babies in heaven....I cast around for something similar.

A Christmas tea is IT! It's a fun way for me to continue something Mom enjoyed AND it makes fun memories for the girls and me. It's a nice way to BREAK  at the height of activity and draw close to each other, to relax, rest, and savor relationships.  I'm still learning from Mom's heart for family.