on the third day of christmas...

... my dear friends gave to me, a lovely afternoon tea!

I think anyone who has read this blog lately knows I love afternoon tea. So when my friends Daryl & James invited me over for tea on the Friday after Christmas -- using Daryl's fancy silver and gold trimmed china -- my only response was, "What time should I arrive?" :) It was a super fancy way to celebrate the third day of Christmas!

We had two rounds of tea -- a yummy "house" blend and a citrusy Christmas blend. They even had sugar cubes, which apparently you can get at the supermarket. I need to pay more attention to my sugar purchasing options. Sugar cubes are a quick and easy way to fancy-up a cup of tea if you're not drinking out of china teacups and saucers ;)

The first course consisted of really good, homemade egg salad and chicken curry finger sandwiches.

The second course was a delish scone with a choice of yummy apple cinnamon jelly or mixed berry preserves. (However, if you're smart, you cut the scone in half so you can have both -- one per half :). And then the final course was a mini mincemeat pie with brandy butter. 

It was a lovely, lovely afternoon! And I even got a lovely parting gift -- since Daryl had just been to London for work again, he brought my favorite cookies ever back for me! A tin of Marks & Spencer Scottish Shortbread Petticoat Tails. Yay! And just in time... my previous stash I've been rationing was down to two triangles. Now I should have enough to last me through March (I hope!)

PS: I would just like to note that my blog now comes up as the #4 Google search result when you search for "marks and spencer scottish shortbread petticoat tails." Woot!