Tea, Anyone?

When the boys were young, we used a Countdown to Christmas calendar. It had a pocket for each day that held a strip of paper with an activity that would help us get ready for Christmas. Even though I haven't used that calendar for many years, I still like the concept of spreading out the holiday activities, and try to do one or two things every day to make the season less hectic.

One of my newest holiday traditions is attending Mr. Toast's virtual Christmas Tea.  Last year was his first one, and I met the nicest group of people there!  When he announced that this year's tea was being held on December 5th at Torosay Castle on the Isle of Mull in Scotland I quickly circled the date on my calendar.

After that came a flurry of decisions.  What to wear?  Who to bring?

If the weather in Scotland is anything like it is here, it will have turned brisk.  That's a good thing, but I find it limits my wardrobe choices.  The crowd was dressed pretty formally last year, and I wanted to make sure my outfit fit in.  After much deliberation, I decided on a silk chiffon gown with an empire waist and elbow length sleeves. No bare shoulders for me!

Who might my escort for this year's tea be?  I wanted someone with a hometown connection.  After a lot of thought, I chose Stan Musial, a St. Louis Cardinal baseball legend and one of the newest recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom (which he'll receive in a ceremony early next year).  At 90, Stan is in frail health, so I don't think we'll be doing a lot of moving around, but from all accounts he's a wonderful conversationalist, so we'll just take a seat by Mr. Toast's roaring fire.  Please stop by and say hello.

I'm sure if you'd like to pop in at Mr. Toast's for tea on Sunday it would be OK. It would be best, though, if you'd RSVP to make sure there's enough tea and scones for everyone.