Tuesday, February 28, 2017

The Tea Party

Out of nowhere my daughter got the idea that she wanted to have a tea party with her Nonna (grandmother) this weekend. It was a cute idea. Except that I wasn't sure from where the thought came. My daughter always looks at me with mild disturbance and disgust when I tell her I am having a cup of tea. The one time I let her try an herbal tea, she informed me, “When I grow up, I might like it.”

Friday evening she notified me that she would like to have a tea party with Nonna. When we woke up Saturday morning, after telling me ‘good morning’, she reminded me that we needed to get ready for the party. We walked to the store to get some cookies and crackers. I informed her that a staple of tea parties were tea sandwiches. She looked at me like I was inventing this information right out of my head. She attempted a compromise by saying ‘we could have cheese on the crackers’. I will never say no to cheese and crackers so I said we would try that this time around.

We made our way to Nonna’s house. We told Nonna we had come over to have a tea party but Nonna wasn’t really up to it. So M turned to her aunt and said ‘Well, you could come to the tea party!’ Auntie seemed thrilled to be included.

I cut a few apples and pears (I was trying to have some healthy food). I put out the cookies and the crackers. I slices a few pieces of cheese while the water boiled. I parsed out the hot water into mugs (I didn’t have tea cups!) each with a tea bag. I let M’s tea brew for only a few moments while the other mugs sat the full time.

Apparently while I was preparing all the food, a few guests arrived. My daughter’s entourage of My Little Ponies and Care Bear figures were sitting at the table waiting for the snacks. They were not the most polite group. They did enjoy the cookies but thought the tea was a bit bitter. I could see they were having an influence over my daughter. She sips a tiny bit of the tea and made a face as if I had served her sewer water. Oh well, I tried. She ate all the pear and a bunch of crackers. The party posse decided that they would rather fight criminals and show their super powers so they didn’t nibble on much.


The day after the party my daughter said we should try to have a tea party again soon and invite some other friends. “Hey! Why not?” I told her. I’d be happy to have some other human interaction while enjoying some tea sandwiches the next time around. 

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