In honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II surpassing Queen Victoria as Britain’s longest-reigning monarch today, we had a tea party…the rare dinnertime tea party!

The stars of the meal were the finger sandwiches…four different kinds! In addition to our favorite cucumber sandwiches on cocktail rye, we also had coronation chicken on very thinly sliced white sandwich bread, gouda cheese with garlic mayonnaise on a thinly sliced French baguette, and turkey and cranberry sauce on wheat bread:

We also had several sweets…Ryan even got us a Cadbury chocolate bar with the Royal Warrant on it! Our standard chocolate chip scones, in the shape of crowns (with strawberry jelly and whipped cream for those of us that think scones are too dry on their own):

Grape finger Jell-O, also in the shape of crowns:

Chocolate chip cookies:

And an orange poppyseed cake:

The tea of choice for our celebration was Darjeeling…I hear The Queen drinks this kind every morning!

I thought the table looked very pretty in white, gold, and silver, with a few purple accents:

Just for fun, after our meal, Ryan and I toasted The Queen. Vivat Regina Elizabetha!

The Queen will never know about the party we had in her honor, but I put just as much effort into it as though she would be joining us, and we all enjoyed celebrating this monumental day “with” her!