Sunday was the monthly tea at Shore Pointe Assisted Living. My theme was "The Father of Our Country and His Sweetheart" - appropriate since we just celebrated Valentine's Day, and President's Day was yesterday, and George Washington's birthday is tomorrow.
Twelve ladies and one gentleman attended. Below are pictures of some of the ladies that attended.
I always take them something to coordinate with the theme, so this month it was Dove chocolate hearts, and chocolate covered cherries in keeping with the story [which is actually a myth created by Parson Weems] that George Washington cut down his father's cherry tree with his hatchet, but was honest and admitted it when confronted by his father. You remember the famous line, "I cannot tell a lie..."
I told them that even though it was fashionable to wear a powdered wig in the late 1700's, our first president refused to wear one and powdered his real hair to make it white instead, as seen in his photo on our one dollar bill.
As always, I learned a lot during my preparations that I didn't know before [or forgot], such as, he was widely criticized in the press during his presidency. Really? Some things never change! ;-)
And it's always fun to share at a tea party the fact that George and Martha were tea lovers.
I shared a couple of his quotes that I thought were really good:
"Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company."
"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence."
Since I was speaking to a group of mostly all ladies, I knew they'd enjoy hearing about Martha Washington. I really enjoyed researching her life. She endured much tragedy in her lifetime - she outlived two husbands [her first husband died after only seven years of marriage leaving her a widow at age 26]. All four of her children died young - two of them under the age of five, one at age 17, and the other just weeks before his 27th birthday. She and George Washington were never able to have children of their own. He was one of the sickest presidents in U.S. history, and it is thought an infection stemming from tuberculosis made him infertile.
She was a doting grandmother to her four grandchildren, and when her widowed daughter-in-law remarried she gave Martha and the President her two youngest children [a boy and a girl] to raise as their own. They were living with them at the time of Washington's presidency.
I closed the program with two excellent quotes of Martha's:
"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance, but by our disposition. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds wherever we go."
"I am only fond of what comes from the heart."
~ A tea toast to George and Martha Washington ~
And it's always fun to share at a tea party the fact that George and Martha were tea lovers.
I shared a couple of his quotes that I thought were really good:
"Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company."
"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence."
Since I was speaking to a group of mostly all ladies, I knew they'd enjoy hearing about Martha Washington. I really enjoyed researching her life. She endured much tragedy in her lifetime - she outlived two husbands [her first husband died after only seven years of marriage leaving her a widow at age 26]. All four of her children died young - two of them under the age of five, one at age 17, and the other just weeks before his 27th birthday. She and George Washington were never able to have children of their own. He was one of the sickest presidents in U.S. history, and it is thought an infection stemming from tuberculosis made him infertile.
She was a doting grandmother to her four grandchildren, and when her widowed daughter-in-law remarried she gave Martha and the President her two youngest children [a boy and a girl] to raise as their own. They were living with them at the time of Washington's presidency.
I closed the program with two excellent quotes of Martha's:
"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance, but by our disposition. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds wherever we go."
"I am only fond of what comes from the heart."
~ A tea toast to George and Martha Washington ~
Interesting - if I knew some of those facts about George and Martha Washington, I had forgotten them! I'm sure the attendees enjoyed your program.
ReplyDelete