Quite different from the recent Saturday afternoon football fests that have been going on around here, eleven little girls showed up at our house this Saturday for Kayla’s 5th annual Christmas tea party.  That’s right ~ 5th annual!  We got out all of the old invitations to see just how long we’ve been having this special get together, and found that we began this tradition when Kayla was 6 years old.

The menu is almost always the same ~ cut veggies and dip, cheese and apples, Christmas cookies, and chocolate covered strawberries.  Some years we’ve done tea sandwiches as well, but this year I decided to go with all fairly easy and naturally gluten free items and not make separate sandwich plates. (The lemon bars and sugar cookies were homemade and gluten free, though.)

Now, usually I make a pot of hot chocolate and a pot of peppermint tea, and usually there are takers for both ~ but not this year.  I think it was because I mentioned that I had whipped cream to top the hot cocoa with and cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle on top of the whipped cream. Not that those things can’t top peppermint tea also, but no one went for it this year!

Gingerbread houses is another tradition.  I thought they might be getting tired of this activity, but I was very wrong about that! I learned that while driving a few of these gals to a birthday party at a skating rink last weekend.  They were all giggling and talking in the back of my van, and the tea party came up in the discussion…

“Are we going to make gingerbread houses again this year?”

“You’re not tired of making gingerbread houses every year?”

“NO!  We LOVE making gingerbread houses!”

Have you noticed that a few of the girls have red dots on their foreheads?  Many of them also have henna designs on their wrists.  This is because Hannah had her 9th birthday party the evening before the tea party.  (Her mom, Trish, and I had to coordinate schedules so that all of the girls could do BOTH the tea party AND the birthday party!)  Anyway, Hannah’s party had an “India” theme, so each girl was dressed in a beautiful sari upon arrival, ate Indian food for dinner, learned some interesting facts about the country, and finished the evening by receiving henna tattoos on their arms.  What a wonderful time they had!

We finished the tea party by making special gifts to give the girls’ moms for Christmas and wrapping them.  I wish I could tell you what they are, but some Mamas might just be reading this!  I think they’re going to like them, though.

Lois stopped by for a while, and when she did, we were drinking our hot chocolate, eating goodies, and listening to a Christmas storybook.  She couldn’t believe how quiet it was!  We joked about the differences between girl parties and boy parties.

But then, after all of the planned tea party activities were over, the girls all piled onto the trampoline for some louder, rougher, crazier play time.  Robert came home with our boys around this time and ran out and snapped this picture.  Just love those smiles!  

Kayla is blessed to be surrounded with wonderful girlfriends ~ and the tea party is such a fun way to get them all together ~ even if no one drinks the tea!  ; )