Tea Party Time

I'm hosting a tea party gathering tomorrow--not the political kind, the hospitable kind. I've blogged about how I wanted to intentionally focus on our faith, our family, and our friends this Christmas season. Marybeth Whalen's e-book, A Recipe for Christmas Joy (wonderful, by the way!), discusses the idea of hosting a peppermint tea party. I loved it, and we are having one tomorrow.

Here's what we're doing:

• Drinking peppermint tea, of course
• I will also brew some Belgian Chocolate Rooibos and have other teas (and coffee) on hand
• Eating snacks (We made red velvet peppermint cream whoopie pies and candy cane cookies; I'll also put out pretzels, a fruit tray, a veggie tray, and crackers and cheese)
• Reading the The Legend of the Candy Cane
• Beading candy cane ornaments (bought materials for these at Hobby Lobby--pipe cleaners, beads, ribbon)
• Making goody bags: candy canes on a card that shares the meaning of the candy cane, Snowman soup (hot cocoa mix, a candy cane, some Hershey Kisses)

I ordered some items (like the candy canes on cards, table covers, candy cane plates and napkins) from Oriental Trading Company. Everything is coming together. Now if only I could get the house clean, and the kids would keep it clean! As I am writing this, they just dumped out a whole bunch of stuff in the sun porch.
So off to take care of that...and the dishes...make dinner...dishes...vacuum...pick up after the little whirlwinds...do more dishes. Eventually, I'll just have to stop and say "It's as good as can be," and enjoy having friends over, even if the house doesn't look exactly like a page out of Southern Living. Whenever I'm on the receiving side of hospitality, I so much more remember the feeling of being with friends (and the kindness of their invitation) than what their home looked like during our visit.