Three Days 'Til Christmas

The clock is ticking until all my family will be at our house on Christmas Eve.  I started my meal prep today and will continue working on it tomorrow.  There will be 18 of us.  The family keeps expanding and my house seems like it's shrinking. 

Thanks to my hubby, the gifts are all wrapped and under the tree.

I wanted to show you the lovely tea-themed linens Amy gave me last Saturday when she came to tea at The Whitney.  The tag says Cottage Core, Lisa Audit Art.  Aren't they adorable!  Thank you so much, Amy!

When I went in to tell my boss good-bye before I left work last Saturday, he gave me this cute framed tea charm, with the words beneath, "Friendship warms the heart."

We drew names at work ['secret Santa'] and the gifts will be exchanged at work this Friday.  I took the gift in last Saturday for the name I drew, but will have to wait until I return to work on Jan. 8th before I get mine since I'm off this Friday.  It'll be an extended Christmas gift.

I received a card in the mail a week or so ago telling me my sweet friend, Lori, gifted me with a year's subscription to Tea Time magazine, and the first issue [Jan.-Feb. 2022] arrived in my mailbox yesterday.  It's a special French issue with what looks like a beautiful Limoges teapot on the cover.  I can't wait to sit down with the magazine and a cup of tea.  Thanks, Lori!

Below are the tea-themed Christmas Cards I sent out this year from Zazzle.  I didn't think I was going to be able find any, but then saw these online.  The inside verse reads:  "May the Joy of the Season brighten your Christmas and Comfort you all year long.  Merry Christmas!"

I also have a Jacquie Lawson subscription for animated e-cards, and she has come beautiful Christmas cards.  

I think the tradition of sending Christmas cards is dying out and when my generation is gone there will be very few sent.  None of my children send cards, and I receive fewer and send fewer every year.  Postage is so expensive and younger people are content with e-mails and texts.  Do you still send Christmas cards?

I probably won't get a chance to post again until after Christmas Eve, so to all my faithful readers, I wish you a very Merry Christmas!  As you and your family gather around your Christmas dinner table, may Tiny Tim's blessing [in A Christmas Carol] be yours, "God bless us, every one!"

Now I'm off to my kitchen to bake a chocolate layer cake for Christmas Eve.  When frosted it'll be a Chocolate Mound Cake.  I also ordered a Cassata Cake from the Italian Bakery.  With 18 people, one Birthday Cake for Jesus isn't enough anymore, but I'm so thankful there's enough of Jesus to go around to everyone who invites Him into their hearts.