Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year with a Few of My Favorite Things

This has been an amazing year for me both professionally and personally.  I love sharing with all of you about my passion for All Things Tea! 

I will be leaving just after Christmas for London and Sri Lanka for study and research for my new book.  I won't be posting most likely until I get back and then I will tell you all about my tea adventures.  I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favorite things Christmas related from my home to yours along with a few of our traditions! 

Every year our family has a tree trimming party starting when the kids were able to stand and put ornaments on the tree.  When the kids were real little, my husband and I would have to do a little rearranging after they went to bed since everything was down at the bottom of the tree.  I make fudge, just like my mom did, we play Christmas music, and eat appetizers.  This year I tried to "break" tradition and serve ham with rolls instead of pigs-in-a-blanket! The kids revolted, so we had our traditional pigs-in-a-blanket again!  I never thought that tradition would be so treasured or I'm not sure I would have started it!!!

This is my set of Christmas dishes from Tracy Porter which is now retired.  We love to eat off of them for the month of December.  The table looks so beautiful Christmas morning with the plates set up.  I make cranberry bread and the same egg casserole I grew up eating Christmas morning. We serve tea from the festive teapots and my kids LOVE the homemade hot chocolate out of their Santa cups!

This Nativity set was hand-painted and given to my mom as a gift the year she was pregnant with me!  I remember setting it up in our living room growing up.  Since my mom is now in a nursing home, the nativity set got passed down to me.  My daughter now does the honors of setting it up in our foyer to welcome all that visit during the holidays.


Here's a little closer view of the Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.  It is the most beautiful set I have ever seen! 


 Our family will be going out for our annual Christmas tea together tomorrow which is something I look forward to all year!

What are some of your family Christmas traditions?

Wishing all you a very warm and wonderful Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Sipping, Lisa

2 comments:

  1. For about the past 15 years my two children have chosen to cook Christmas dinner. It has been from a different country each year and the theme has been kept a secret. This year life is changing as my daughter will be with her boy friend, so life goes on and traditions sometimes do change.

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  2. Over here at TEA magazine, we'd be really interested to know about your travels/book. We are as far as we know the only UK mag devoted to tea, tea rooms and all things tea. I was personally lucky enough to visit Sri Lanka on a Robert Wilson tea tour a few years back and LOVED the experience. Hope it goes well. TEA TEAM www.teatalkmagazine.co.uk

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