Petite Riviere Christmas Tea

Wesley United Church Hall
Petite Riviere, NS
Dec. 1, 2007

This was the first time either of us had been to this church, but luckily Petite Riviere is a small community so it wasn't too hard to find. As you come up the steep hill exiting Petite, heading towards Broad Cove, the United church is on your left at the top of the hill. It is a towering building with possibly one of the creepiest graveyards I have ever seen.

Once we figured out where to go, we pulled back the heavy wooden doors and entered Cozy-ville! It was an amazing tea and a very special venue. Unfinished wood walls gave the space a warm and inviting feel. Festive cloth table cloths graced the tables, complete with holly and white pine sprigs at each table. Ours had a little 'drummer boy' drum ornament in it as well.

Wave upon wave of friendly servers attended to our every need. First we had our tea (delicious) and then the sandwiches started to arrive:



Ohmigod, cream cheese and cherry, ham and cheese, mock seafood (fake crab), tuna and egg salad (complete with onions). I wished the afternoon would never end. Lisa was beside herself, especially because the sandwiches came 'sans crust'. A plate of devilled eggs was not far behind the sandwiches as we devoured every one that we were offered.

Eventually we had to stop eating sandwiches and desert soon followed. We had a bit of each. An uncoventional trifle: I think it had jello instead of jelly, and what I think were canned pears in the base? Rainbow sprinkles dotted the surface of the dream whip (I'm pretty sure it was dream whip) topping. At any rate, sweet and delish! The other choice was a mincemeat cheesecake, with vanilla graham crumb crust and candied oranges on top of the dream whip topping. Again, sweet and oddly addictive!

I am SO glad we ventured out that day, considering the horrid weather I encountered on my drive in to Bridgewater earlier that morning. Luckily the snow had abated by lunch time, and there was hardly a trace of snow the closer we got to the coast. I highly recommend everyone attend next year's Christmas tea, I know I will.

Annual Maitland Christmas Tea

Maitland, NS
Nov. 24, 2007

It's never hard to convince me to attend a community supper at the local Maitland hall, and the annual Christmas tea is no exception.

The hall is set up with a slightly different layout than your average supper. There are more single tables, and half of the hall is reserved for craft, bake and other assorted tables.

We received some knowing glances when we sat down, I guess we're regulars now! We were set up with the oh, so delicious tea that makes the Maitland suppers stand out and we quickly received our plates of food:



The turkey salad was chock full of REAL turkey and the ham was yummy as well. The bun came pre-buttered and the little container of cranberry jelly was also a nice accent to the meal. The coleslaw was homemade, crunchy and delicious as usual.

Our plate came complete with all the little details, right down to the sprinkle of paprika on the potato salad, nestled on some crisp iceberg lettuce...doesn't it just make you want to say, "awwww"?

And then....the sweets...oh, the sweets...Chocolate covered peanut butter balls, skor toffee bars, chocolate covered coconut cherry balls, mint bars, and still the sweets kept coming. My only regret is that the batteries died on my camera so I couldn't take pics of the sweets for you all to savour.

The neighbouring chatter was fun to listen to as well. Our nearest neighbour entertained us with stories of when she buys finger cookies on sale, what cookies freeze well, what she and her husband had for dinner the last time out and what candy to buy for Christmas. Rivetting stuff! I was particularly impressed with her thrify nature with the Xmas candy, "why should I buy a 10 dollar box, when he's just as happy to eat what I get from the dollar store?" Why indeed?

The tea was capped off buy my purchase of 2 pairs of hand knit mittens for children and one hand knit dish rag. All for the grand total of 4 dollars. (^_^) The knitted goods vendor had a chuckle when I commented, "surely some kid I know needs mittens!"

To paraphrase the Beatles, a splendid time was had by all!