Ladies' Homecoming Tea

After a hiatus from coordinating Afternoon Teas for the ladies of my church and their friends, I got back into the groove and scheduled another one that took place yesterday, Saturday, September 7th.  I called it a Homecoming Tea because I knew summer vacation activities were over and ladies were back home and settling into the fall season.

The place was Sycamore Hills Golf Club - a lovely venue I've used several times.  Hopefully, the next tea will be in our brand new church facility.

Jerry and I arrived at Sycamore Hills a few minutes before 11:00 a.m. to get everything ready for the ladies arrival at noon.

Sycamore Hills had the sign in the foyer to direct our ladies to the right room.

I did a Paris themed tea for our ladies in 2009 at a different venue, and called it Springtime in Paris [it was held in May].  A teacher in our congregation taught French and had taken students to Paris several times, so she told us about all the sights in the 'City of Light.'  Since ten years had lapsed and I still had the Eiffel Tower centerpieces, I decided to go with a Paris theme again, only this time I used Julia Child for the program.  She lived in Paris from 1948 to 1953, and it's where her culinary career and love of French cuisine began. 

My sweet girlfriend, Lori, arrived early to help put the finishing touches on the tablescapes. I bought a large picture frame so my hubby could use it to take photos of all the ladies when they arrived.  The ladies had fun with it.

I got the pink Paris top [below] eons ago and finally had the perfect occasion to wear it!  ;-)

Pink and black was the color scheme, and inside the pink and black nylon bags at each place setting was Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers - Julia's favorite snack food.

My daughter-in-law, Sharon, granddaughter, Brooke, and Sharon's mother, Sheena.

Two ladies came wearing a hat [the other one isn't pictured].  Karen even wore glove.  I loved it!

You can see the ladies had fun with the picture frame. 

Sycamore Hills was great to provide the French menu I gave them.  I made the tea - French Caramel Creme Brulee - and the meal began with a cup of delicious French Onion Soup.  Julia did a PBS French Chef program demonstrating how to make it, and, of course, it's in her cookbook.  It was also her last requested meal before she passed away.  

The main course was a Chicken Salad Croissant and a mini Quiche.

Dessert was a Cream Puff [French choux pastry] filled with Vanilla Ice Cream topped with Hot Fudge Sauce.  I only had a taste of mine because while the ladies were eating theirs I changed from my Paris outfit into my Julia Child outfit for the presentation.

~ My girlfriend, Sandy, and me ~

This was my fifth presentation about Julia, so I felt pretty confident talking about her life. Each time I tweak it a bit so it's not identical, but nobody at church had ever heard me speak about her, so it wouldn't have mattered.  Lori and Sandy heard the very first presentation I did about her in 2015, but Saturday's had a lot of new and different information.

The tea was well attended [50 ladies], and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, so I went home happy and thanking Jesus for His blessing on the afternoon.

The post about the 2009 Parisian Tea can be viewed here.  It took place before I started blogging in 2012, but I included it after the fact.