Happy Christmas and Merry Christmas!!!

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas! The photo above is Bath Abbey at night...lit for Christmas.

Ice skating in Hyde Park, London by the London Eye...

 Christmas at Windsor Castle...

And a very Happy Christmas

or

Merry Christmas

to you all!

Ho Ho Ho! Santa Mug Seasons Greetings and Celestial Seasonings Teas

Hello and welcome to a Tuesday Cuppa Tea which I am joining with Antiques And Teacups.

The top of the china cabinet is decorated with a swag I did a few years ago and is adorned with a German Dresden paper star angel announcing the birth of Jesus.

 But Santa, or Father Christmas is coming soon. I pulled out another of our Dunoon mugs from the Season's Greetings series by Richard Partis that features the jolly old elf himself! This isn't a teacup, but when it's cold my Honey likes a mug and not a teacup...and of course that's fine with me!

Pretty cute, isn't it? And isn't he jolly! What a long list! For more info on the mug at Time Was Antiques, click on the photos. 

The perfect mug for a cup of seasonal teas. Here are 2 of our favorite Celestial Seasons this year. I favor the Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride and my Honey likes the  Gingerbread Spice best!

 I can sit with a cup of tea while going through some of my seasonal books. One of my favorites is The Ritz Book Of Christmas which I picked up at the Ritz Hotel when we were there one year during the Christmas season and stopped for afternoon tea in the Palm Court. The book has Christmas lore and traditions, history of the Ritz and it's tea tradition and some marvelous recipes. I am sharing a simple one I like for Fruit And Nut Clusters.

 Fruit And Nut Clusters

"Red and green are the classic Christmas colours and the decoration od red and green glace cherries on these delicious little chocolates carries on the theme. They look enchanting in individual gold or silver sweet cases, if you can get hold of them, but failing that, pack them into a gold or silver box tied up with red and green ribbon."

The recipe has both metric and cup measures, but I give only the cup measures here.

4 squares semi sweet chocolate, broken into small pieces

1 tbs light honey

3/4 cup mixed dried fruit

1/2 cup chopped nuts like almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts

red and green glace cherries for decoration

Place the chocolate and the honey in a bowl, then either stand this over a pan of hot water until the chocolate has melted, or put into a microwave on low power for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in the fruit and nuts until they are well coated with chocolate. Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto waxed paper or parchment. Press a small piece of glace cherry into the top of each piece and leave in a cool place until set. 

For a fun tour of Christmas at Windsor Castle, here is a link from The Royal Collection Trust about the festivities there with a video at the bottom of the page:   HERE

 

Lastly, most of you will have already seen this, but here is the latest picture of little Prince George, son of William and Catherine, Duke & Duchess of Cambridge.

 

I am joining Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage for her Christmas Tea and Ruth at Antiques And Teacups for Tuesday Cuppa Tea.   Have a wonderful day visiting the other blog parties. And have a cuppa tea with a friend!

Wedding Anniversary Queen Elizabeth and Philip, Diamond Jubilee Teacup, Thanksgiving

It is torrential rain interspersed with sunshine here in the Pacific Northwest.Forecast to be a drier and warmer than usual winter...it has been exactly the opposite so far...go figure!

Thanksgiving is this week, and we are looking forward to the official national day to be thankful for the many blessings we have. I don't want it to be only one day of the year, but I want my life to be lived in the attitude of thankfulness to God for His blessings!

 November 20, 1947 Princess Elizabeth married Prince Philip of Greece, in....as royal weddings go...a small and cost conscious post war ceremony.  They had their 67th wedding anniversary just a few days ago....

The young couple...when they were engaged, and below...just a few weeks ago...a couple aging together....

I love this photo!..My teacup today is one of the few made for the wedding by Paragon, England. And it was another simple post war idea...another previously made design was reused with the addition of the wedding bell border added. Very simple...

The bottom bears the Royal warrants of Queen ElizabethII's mother Queen Elizabeth...wife of King George VI...and her grandmother...wife of King George V...Queen Mary.  Pretty and simple. Robin's Egg blue was said to be the bride's favorite color at the time.

Wedgwood did a fancy and huge mug for their 25th anniversary in 1972 by designer Richard Guyatt which is quite spectacular. The trim is platinum and the mug is gorgeous!

They are very hard to find! I loved this one!

 

I don't have a more current wedding cup and saucer or mug, but I do have a Diamond Jubilee cup and saucer made for the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II ascending to the throne. I love the smiling portrait on that...

Isn't that lovely? I think it's a great image of a wonderful woman who has shouldered a tremendous job and done it with integrity and grace. Her image is surmounted with the crown and surrounded by the rose for England, the thistle for Scotland, daffodils for Wales and the shamrock for Ireland.

The teacup and saucer is bone china, made by Heirloom, England, one of the new small potteries to emerge since the last major consolidation and closing of potteries in the early 1990s. May they long survive and continue to make pottery in the UK!

Thanksgiving is one of the times I get out the old issues of Victoria magazine...this is the September/October 2008 issue, and I fell in love with this natural material wreath...

 I hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends, and don't forget to share...or at least think about...the many blessings we take so for granted. We are indeed a people truly blessed...don't let the negative get in the way of our appreciation for our many blessings! God is good!

 I am joining these lovely blog parties....

Tuesday Cuppa Tea with Ruth 

Tea Cup Tuesday with Martha

Tea Time Tuesday with Sandi 

                                     Tea in the Garden with Bernideen 

Poppy Day, Tower Exhibit, Old Curiosity Shop Cup And Saucer, Royal Birthday

It's Remembrance day, Poppy Day or Veteren's Day depending on how you were raised..Brit or Yank.  The name Poppy Day came from this poem written during the Great War or World War I:

 On my last post I shared the progress on the Tower Of London installation commemorating Britain's entry into World War I. You can read about it HERE. It was finally finished...with 888,246 red ceramic poppies...the number of British casualties in the war...

The Times Online posted this photo of the Tower with the completed exhibit from the air, and a friend of mine is in London at the moment, visited the Tower and sent me this photo....

 Look at the way they poured from a window...the scope of it is truly amazing. Thank you, too, to all the veterans who have given so much for our freedom. Thank you. The poppies are in place until Nov. 11 when they will be sold for 25 pounds each to raise funds for charities, 11.2 million pounds.

And to my teacup for Tuesday...

 I want to share a teacup for Tuesday Cuppa Tea, so chose this English themed Rosina, England demitasse cup and saucer that was a souvenir of The Old Curiosity Shop in London England...

 The Old Curiosity Shop was immortalized by the novel of the same name by Charles Dickens....

 I can remember crying so hard over the plight of Little Nell when I was a child...

 The Old Curiosity Shop is still there, although it has been through several changes in the stock...from antiques & curios, to high fashion shoes, to carpets to an art gallery...but the outside remains unchanged...this is from one of our London visits...

Rosina, England, one of my favorite china makers, made fine bone china souvenirs for the shop in the 1940-1950s, most with this Cecil Forbes original engraving design of the shop...for more info on the teacup at Time Was Antiques click on the photos.

This is a circa 1900 early postcard and early photograph of the shop interior...I would have LOVED to have a wander around...wouldn't you?

And a Happy Birthday to HRH Prince Charles whose birthday is November 14th....who is 66.

Prince Charles at age 5 with sister Princess Anne...and below from a few months ago...both courtesy of Getty Images...

 Thanks for visiting. I hope you have a wonderful week. I am joining Tuesday Cuppa Tea.