Afternoon Tea

Every weekend it seems we are running around doing errands for the house or getting JP and Logan needed items. JP finally pushed me enough to make a reservation at the St. James Tearoom in Albuquerque...

We arrived dressed up - well, dressed up to the best of our ability at the moment anyway - and patiently waited to be seated to our "room." Every month they have a different theme; this month's theme was Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland. Thus, the tea cozy placed upon our tea pot (to keep it warm) had a sign on it stating "Drink Me." The three tiers of food (top tier, savories - such as chicken blueberry salad, curiouser and curiouser quiche, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle dumpling, etc. Second tier, scones and bread; third tier, sweets - Queen of Hearts Cherry Tarts, Cheshire Cat Chocolate Mint, and Wonderland Tea Party Cake.)

Our room - Highwood. The country estate home of William Wilberforce, a British statesman and philanthropist. His efforts in Parliament helped pass the Slave Trade Act of 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act to end slave trade in the British Empire in 1833.

You are alloted two hours in which time you receive three pots of tea. (I'm not much of a tea drinker but I was outdoing JP on all of these different teas - excited to try the next one!) The first pot we received was a traditional black tea called "Lady Londonderry". Next pot was a blueberry black tea, and the third pot an orange oolong that was delightful!

Of course, (as a mom always does - well I do anyway) I wondered how my active little two year old boy was going to behave having to sit two hours around fancy tea cups. He was GREAT!!! He thought moving the sugar with the sugar tongs was pretty amusing (there were two sugar bowls, one sugar in the raw with a small spoon in it and one with lumps of brown and white sugar with sugar tongs). He drank his tea with his tea spoon, ate a few savories, went back and forth from one couch to the other (our room had two victorian style couches with a table in between) and talked to Mom and Dad about very important two year old things.