Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Holiday Tea with family

My family came over Sunday for a last minute get together, so I decided I might as well use my Christmas china.  I also haven't really shared it before (even though I've now had two Decembers on the blog), so why not?  I won't take my decorations down until this weekend anyway :).



I set the table in my dining room, which is also home to my carousel tree (cue different view of the room!).


My Christmas china is Royal Albert's Christmas Tree. 


Because this was a bit last minute, I just cooked up some scones I had in the freezer (the Christmas scones I shared last month) and some left over salted toffee, butterscotch, and milk chocolate cookies from New Year's.  This is my new Royal Doulton Christmas figurine--The First Noel, from the Songs of Christmas series.




I served two different teas.  The Downton Christmas tea from my "On this Winter's night" post in my Lenox teapot, and Celestial Seasonings Cranberry Vanilla Wonderland tea in my Old Country Roses pot (which of course goes with my OCR Christmas china!).  Both teas were hits. 


The Cranberry Vanilla Wonderland tea is a rooibos tea with cranberry, vanilla flavors, hibiscus, cinnamon, roasted chicory, orange peel, chamomile, juniper berries, and stevia extract!  With the stevia it is already sweet, but I still added more sweetner.  I bought this tea after Christmas last year and saved it--and I'm glad too, since the new Celestial Seasonings box designs aren't as pretty.

Here is one last view of my dining room so you can better see the tree, and my tea cart hiding between the windows.  Okay, I lied when I said that I was done sharing Christmas trees.  This tree has a carousel theme.



I'm linking to these parties:

8 comments:

  1. Oh, I absolutely adore last minute teatime gatherings!

    Yours was so pretty - your Christmas china is gorgeous!

    I put away the last of my Christmas things today and decorated all in whites, silvers and bling - will hopefully have time to share a post on it soon.

    I was saddest to put away my red and gold Christmas tablesetting - it's one of my favorite looks of the year.

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  2. Your tea table is beautiful, Carrie! I love your china and both teapots are gorgeous! What fun you have setting a special table. Your new RD lady is a beauty and the tea sounds lovely. I haven't seen any Downton tea around here at all and the cranberry vanilla sounds splendid! What a pretty tree! Isn't it a pity the holidays don't last a little longer? So glad you've shared with us and Happy New Year!

    Blessings,
    Sandi

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  3. Dear Carrie:
    This is such a lovely room with traditional style and a wonderful table. Love the corner cupboards which are so colonial. I think your table is really pretty with the OCR Christmas China. Your figurine is sure a nice addition to the table. So glad you shared this and Happy New Year!

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  4. Room looks right out of a movie....beautifully splendid!

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    1. Hello Maria! Thanks so much for leaving a comment and saying you like my dining room :). I couldn't tell if you have a blog or not to return the visit, so I apologize if you do have one.

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  5. What a pretty Christmas tea setting! I'd love to try out the Cranberry Vanilla Tea but have never seen this flavour at my local stores. I agree that the original CS box designs are prettier than the new ones. I actually saved the front covers for the Candy Cane Lane and Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride packages, but haven't decided yet what to do with them!

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  6. Elegant tea gatherings, the preparation looks pretty amazing.

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  7. Carrie I don't have a blog..work, house, kids..elderly parents and did I mention husband! no blog time. Thanks Maria

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Thank you so much for your comment! I hope you have a wonderful day :)