Tuesday Cuppa Tea for Boxing Day

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, the start of Hannukah or other holiday...it is Christmas here...

But it is certainly a time of year for celebrations!

And today is Boxing Day in the UK, Canada and the Commonwealth...

But more about that later....because this is Tuesday Cuppa Tea...

And today it's a small tea in the sunroom for Boxing Day...while my Honey watches English soccer on TV...

The weather made photos difficult...we got some snow, and generally it was grey...but the tablecloth I made a few years ago is bright and cheery...

My tea is another Harney & Sons seasonal Christmas tea...White Christmas Tea...which is black tea with almonds and vanilla. It really smells and tastes more like chocolate to me, and is a lovely dessert tea which is soothing and warming...

The Holly teapot, which is really a kettle shape is just the right size for 2 cups and was made in England by Springfield.  

Springfield is one of the newer potteries that popped up in the wake of the great pottery slice and dice in the 1990s. The bone china teapot is so cute!

The ornament was a gift from my BFF whom I miss so much as she lives in California, and I, in Washington state....

And for a tea treat... a Yule Log or Buche de Noel cake...I often make them for Christmas, but with my Honey having a difficult time this year it didn't happen...I got this at a local bakery, but it was disappointing, dry really, so will be back to making my own next year... I usually make Marzipan mushrooms to go with mine...I love Marzipan!

I hope you aren't tired of my cross stitches...they are just a family tradition, and I do so love making them! Cross stitch is so relaxing! I had to get new glasses after my retina problem last month, and they came on the day before Christmas Evev...3 days early...but I haven't tried stitching yet...

And my Royal Grafton, England Noel teacup which I know you have seen before...but I love it and use it often during the season....

Boxing Day is famous in the UK for sales, English football bingeing...soccer to Yanks, long walks, leftovers and friends and familes... similar to our day after Christmas... 

but it began as the tradition of the landed gentry...think Crawleys in Downton Abbey... giving gifts to the staff who served them through the year and especially the Christmas season. The Christmas feast leftovers were also gathered up and distributed to the poor, the needy and the dependents in the estate homes and villages, and it was considered good training for young ladies and gentlemen to learn to consider the estate dependents.  

Boxing Day fox hunts were also traditional...although nowadays the hounds only follow a scented lure, and more often then not the hunt is wrought with protests...but traditionally a big thing.The above is a Times image from the Tenterdon hunt...

This week we are having our SANTAFORGOT code 15% off sale at our shops...

Antiques And Teacups

So I hope you have had a lovely tea...so glad you could visit...wasn't sure this would happen...Christmas Eve Day was not a good ady for my Honey, but yesterday, Christmas Day was...so glad!  This week I am joining:

 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden
Home Sweet Home

Thanks so much for joining me for tea!  Here is the linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there! And I love to read your comments, and I do read every one if I can find and can get to you to visit!  If you comment from Google+…it isn’t easy...so forgive me if I am not replying to comments you so kindly leave...I am trying!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday Cuppa Tea Merry Christmas!

Again life has interrupted my plans...as it has a way of doing...had planned a sunroom tea, but we got down to 18 degrees and so couldn't keep the room warm enough to keep it open, and the rest of the house doesn't have enough light. So...

My teacup this week had to be an early Christmas gift... a pair of Emma Bridgewater We 3 Kings mugs that I just love! 

These have been a comfort and home to lots of cups of tea during my husband's oral surgery to remove a broken back tooth...which had to be done with almost no pain killers due to his Parkinson's and heart mediactions. He actually did quite well as we have a fabulous oral surgeon, and he is a wonderful patient, but it still really put him out of commission most of the week...so lots of home made chicken soup and tea.   And these mugs just brought a smile to his face!

I wanted to show you 2 presents from friends over the years...I love snowmen, and so these were gifts at various times. These 2 little friends are on the buffet in the dining room.

People are so talented!!!  Below are one of my favorite Christmas items...salt and pepper shakers in the shape of Staffordshire dogs! I got them in England about 15 years ago, and treasure them! The have a few chips, but I care not!

I have been sharing a lot of the books that come out from a back bookshelf at Christmas. Here is another favorite. This is called Christmas With Rosamund Pilcher, the famous author that I got in 1997 as a gift from a dear friend. The book has wonderful illustrations, the author's special Christmas memories and wonderful recipes from her family. There are also book excerpts and some short seasonal stories.

I look forward to sitting with a cup of tea in the afternoon as a break point and look forward to spending time with a favorite Christmas book friend. I have Jane Austen, Elizabeth Goudge, Charles Dickens, Max Lucado, Miss Read and lots of Victoria and Country Living Christmas books. I imagine you have many favorite seasonal reads as well!  All part of the comfortable and comforting traditions of seasonal tea times!

Our Christmas this year has been health issues...must be over 35! I want to thank so many of you for your comments, notes, emails and even small tea gifts during the last few weeks. Hopefully 2017 will be a bit calmer! May God bless you all and may your Christmas be filled with joy, peace and love with lots of tea and friendship sprinkled throughout!

I am leaving off the linky, as you are all probably going to be so very busy, and look forward to having tea with you next week! Cheers!

Tuesday Cuppa Tea December Angel Joys

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa tea...on a cold winter's night. Not the Bleak Midwinter of the Christmas Carol, but the low 30s anyway...we have had a dusting of snow, and are expecting a bit overnight.

And looking ahead for the week, Happy Birthday to Jane Austen, born December 16th 1755...

I do love all her books, and the movies made of them...definitely one of my favorite authors.

My husband is finally doing a bit better...he is beginning to tolerate the 1/4 dose of the new medication, so we have upped it today to 1/2 a dose. That is doing well also so far. So there is a bit of relief and rejoicing here...but he broke a tooth and that has to come out on Wednesday...not too easy with Parkinson's Disease. But is attitude is good, and he is trusting in the Lord for comfort and strength.  

I have put up the wooden Welcome sign by the front door I painted a number of years ago...just isn't Christmas without it there to greet visitors...and we had a teatime in the sunroom as usual...

I made this Christmas tablecloth several years ago...it's like woven Christmas ribbons....and of course, my favorite Spode Christmas tree teacup...this one is made in England, although the pattern is now made in Indonesia...

I have gotten out the Harney & Sons Holiday black tea with spices I ordered last month...love the taste...

And a sort of Christmas gift to myself... a 2 cup Emma Bridgewater Holly teapot...I just couldn't resist....

I got out one of the Christmas cross stitches I have done over the years...this is an angel form the 1980s...

And, on the Royal Doulton Rosebud china that is a staple around here at Christmas, I made some Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cranberry cookies from the Bob's Red Mill organic oatmeal bag...I needed some comfort food, and these were soft enough for my Honey to have with his broken tooth...recipe follows...not very Christmassy, but delicious!

Whole Wheat Oat Cranberry cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp sea salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 quick cooking rolled oats
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 baking sheets or line with parchment. Cream butter, sugars and salt until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and mix. 

Sift together flour, baking powder and spices. Ass to butter mixture and mix slightly. Add oats and cranberies and continue to mix until thoroughly combined.

Scoop cookies onto prepared baking sheets...about 2 tbs per cookie... and bake for 15-17 minutes until the edges are lightly brown.

Let cool slightly on baking sheets the transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Makes 28-32 cookies.

This week is going to be filled with doctor visitis again and on oral surgeon for a tooth extraction, and me getting my retina checked again and then an eye exam for new glasses with the new permanent change...but it's Christmas and my favorite time of year. But...if I don't get a chance to visit you...I do apologize. I think the following week it'll be normal again...I hope! Lol! 

Thanks for joining me for tea, and have a lovely week rejoicing in the season! I am joining...Lord willing...

 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden
Home Sweet Home

Thanks so much for joining me for tea!  Here is the linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there! And I love to read your comments, and I do read every one if I can find and can get to you to visit!  If you comment from Google+…it isn’t easy...so forgive me if I am not replying to comments you so kindly leave...I am trying!

An InLinkz Link-up