Done to a tea

 At the left are:  bottom tier, curried chicken sandwiches; middle tier, raisin/oatmeal cookies; top tier,shortbread and  lemon macarons.  To the right,  Home-made from scratch chocolate cupcakes surrounding a compote of honeydew melon balls with fresh mint.






 Here's our cheerful hostess in her jolly tea room.

Extra seating is available in the living room.

Decor was festive for Lincoln's Birthday.

 And everyone had a great time!

Everyone!  We sang happy birthday to us in three different versions (including the Volga Boatman version.)  We randomly exchanged gifts. (I suggested take a present, leave a present.  But people wanted to wait till there were lots of gifts to choose from.)  I don't think anyone was disappointed.

And as always, we talked and laughed and ate and drank and communed, and finished feeling better than we had when we started.

Oh, and some of us even got some knitting done.  Now the dishes are done and waiting to be put away, and I'm sitting back with my feet up and a sense of a job well done.

The chocolate cupcakes were a success as were the shortbread and the oatmeal cookies, and I will use those recipes again.  The macarons were a partial failure. They tasted ok, but rather than use eggwhites which have been properly aged for three days, I tried using merengue powder.  It made lovely merengue, but the macarons didn't get feet.  I'll know better for next time.

I just LOVE doing this!  It makes me so happy!