A Christmas Tea

It has been cold here in the Dallas area..and I mean Brrrrrr!! This morning the sun thought about appearing, but the clouds took over and it was a cold, cold day! However, this cold, cloudy day was one I have been looking forward to for some time. This was the day my daughter and I were going to the Dallas Arboretum for their Holiday Tea.
I intended for us to walk the grounds and check out all the decorations and look at the pansies and anything else that might be in bloom, but the temperature was only 28 degrees so we decided we would do that another time. The Holiday Tea was in the De Golyer Cafe Tea Room, which is part of the old DeGolyer Estate. This is a picture of the front door.
When we walked in we were given our choice of a table toward the front of the room, or a table by the fireplace. Bet you can guess what we chose!
The table was set with beautiful Christmas china. We stated off with Tomato Basil Broth with a Cheese Wafer. Delicious, and how perfect on such a cold day. The second course was various tea sandwiches: cinnamon apple bread with cream cheese, turkey with orange butter on cranberry bread (my favorite!), egg salad on onion bread, creamed cucumber on white bread, and chicken salad on croissant. The third course were the desserts: pecan tarts, almond short bread, chocolate espresso, sugar cookies and orange currant scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream. YUM!!!! And of course, the tea. We started with peach cinnamon hibiscus, moved to apple spice , and finished with vanilla. The vanilla was to die for!!
We sat by the fire, looked out on a cold winter day in a beautiful garden, listened to Christmas music softly playing in the background, and had delicious goodies and teas. Life is good!

"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea." ~Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady