Christmas Tea

As long as we’ve spent so much of the year “being British,” we had to have a Christmas tea party. It was especially fun to enjoy our lunch by the light of the Advent wreath.

The tea of choice was Bigelow’s “Ginger Snappish”–very festive!

We had old favorites, like cucumber sandwiches:

And something new and Christmasy–layered finger jello:

Egg salad sandwiches, turned into Christmas trees:

English muffins with an extra special treat…Stonewall Kitchen Holiday Jam (yum!):

Plus, some oranges (it wouldn’t be Christmastime without oranges!), and samples of all of the cookies and various treats we’ve been making for the last week! It was quite a feast, and a nice end to our “Christmas in England” themed Christmas School!

An Olympic Tea Party

Today we had our grandest afternoon tea to date, which is befitting an occasion like the London 2012 Olympics. In addition to trying a new flavor of tea (Vanilla Chai), we had a mixture of old favorites and new treats.

The old stand-by, cucumber sandwiches:

And a new savory finger sandwich–crab salad. Surprisingly popular with everyone!

Crumpets with red currant jelly (OK, they were actually English muffins, but they looked rather like crumpets!):

Chocolate chips scones and Devonshire cream:

Lemon meltaways (this recipe is definitely going in my permanent collection!):

Viennese chocolate sables, in letter shapes…”O” for the Olympics, and “E” for England (and Queen Elizabeth!):

And some of the most beautiful fresh strawberries I’ve ever seen!

I’m not sure how I can top this tea party. I do think I’ll try, though…I’m thinking a Christmas tea party might be nice in December!

The Cream Tea

Our Diamond Jubilee cream tea was quite a success! I don’t know how authentically British it was (probably not) but it was fun, and the children had a blast.