Celebrations and Preparations

My hubby's 'biological odometer' recently rolled over another year and my daughter had us over for a lovely celebration dinner.  

Thanksgiving is a time of being grateful for our blessings and giving to those less fortunate.  I usually send checks to Salvation Army, Gleaners, and/or Detroit Rescue Mission to help feed the hungry [that's the easy way], but this year I took a Thanksgiving box to fill from my local church and put a little of myself into it.  I shopped for the list of grocery items on Monday [minus the perishables which I'll purchase this Saturday] and will return it Sunday morning. Tea wasn't on the list, but you can be sure a box will be in there!  So grateful for the opportunity to brighten a family's Thanksgiving.  50 boxes were distributed and my box was #44.  It's very organized by a couple in our church.

Aside from focusing on Thanksgiving Day food preparations [I'm making the turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, rolls, and pumpkin pie] and transporting it to my son's house, and daughter-in-law, Sharon, will fill in with other sides, I'm also VERY busy with the preparations for the December 6th ladies' Christmas tea at church.  

I bought the Christmas silk flowers to decorate the tiered servers.  61 ladies have signed up to attend so far with two Sundays remaining for sign-up.   Six ladies volunteered to hostess a table and three of us are doing two tables, and it's starting to look like some may be doing three.

I already posted that one of my tables will be a Nutcracker theme, and I decided my second table will be a snowy/icy theme using my Petals vintage dishes.  I bought the placemats and chargers on Monday.  I haven't decided what theme the third table will be yet.

This will be the favor for that table.  I copied the picture frame idea from what I'm doing at The Whitney.  The photo is our church on the first snowfall a couple of winters ago.

I would LOVE to order these dishes from Overstock.com for my third table because I already have the truck centerpiece, but I keep telling myself, No!  No!  No!  But the grandkids would love them.  No!  No!  No!

As previously mentioned, the theme of the tea is "A Cup of Christmas Tea" and I received the most lovely surprise in yesterday's mail from a dear friend in California.

She read on my blog the tea's theme and sent Tom Hegg's book.  What makes this book so special is she acquired it at an estate sale 20 years ago and inside the book was a handwritten note a mother wrote to her grown son, David, in 2000 saying she found the message of the book so profound and beautiful.  David and his family were joining her that year for Christmas and she wanted to start a tradition of sharing 'A Cup of Christmas Tea' around their Christmas tree - something they would always treasure and remember.  

My friend thought it would be honoring to this dear mother to share her story at the tea, which I will definitely do.  

If I don't get a chance to post again before Thanksgiving, I wish you and yours a very Blessed Thanksgiving!