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
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!
