Time for Tea

My good friend Molly's birthday is just a week before mine.  She's been 32 for more than a month now.  But it took that long for us to get together.  Since she's our kids' Godmother I try to do something special for her.  Instead of a gift, I wanted to take her somewhere.  I racked and racked my brain.  I wanted to include Victoria.  She's the perfect age to really appreaciate how lucky she is to have such a present Godmother.  It took me two weeks (& Amanda giving me the idea).  Tea.  We would go out for tea.  It sounded like a girlie thing to do.  Both Victoria and Molly are quite girlie.  It's much more difficult to get in for tea anywhere during December.  Apparently, Christmas Tea is all the rage.  I finally got us in, in between Christmas Teas, right in the middle of nap, at 1:00 on Saturday.  Victoria and I have been talking about it for two weeks.  Counting down the days for our special birthday tea with Aunt Molly.  Molly arrived at our house and we were off to Downtown White Bear Lake, The Avalon Tea Room.

I had no idea what to expect.  I was better than my wildest dream.

It was quaint and perfect for the occasion.  We each got our own pot of tea and then sampled each other's.  Victoria by far, loved tea the most.  She pounded down three cups before she finished her sandwich and chips.

Leave it to Aunt Molly to bring us a gift on her birthday!  It was a gorgeous book that is 3-D and hanging in our kitchen.

Stirring ice-cubes into her first glass of tea. 

After our lunch we headed across the street for dessert at Grandma's Bakery.



Even though she ate a ton at lunch and three teacups of  tea, she chose the largest
cinnamon roll ever.

After dessert we did a bit of shopping.  Victoria touched every little thing she saw.  Everything!  If you were in downtown WBL that day you would have heard me saying, "Look wiht your eyes, not with your fingers," hundreds of times.  I eventually gave it.  She dropped a couple things but nothing broke and then I ended up having a lot more fun.  Then she saw a little tray of snacks.  It was low enough for her to see and it had mini cups of goldfish and pretzels.  Not exactly an adult treat.  She ate again!  I found an Advent calendar in the form of a line of 25 stockings.  It's been fun revealing the fun contents each day. 

Aunt Molly came back to our house and was treated to being introduced to all 101 stuffed animals that Victoria owns.  Then Mark and Christian came home with a Santa for our front yard.  Since Molly was there we all headed out for a family shot.

I love this picture!  It looks like Santa is towering over our house. 

He's quite large, but this angle makes him seem even larger! 

Next Molly and I headed off for some adult time shopping at Charming Charlie's.  

When I got home I was exhausted.

It was a day filled with memories!