I've been following the blog Shower of Roses for some time now and have really admired the many activities she does with her children to instill in the them the faith. One of the activities she does is liturgical teas...tea parties that celebrate different seasons in the Catholic Church or Feast Days. I have also been reading Bringing Up Girls by Dr. James Dobson. He dedicated a chapter to training girls to be ladies. One thing his wife did with their daughter was have tea parties. She used this as a time to teach manners and etiquette, as well as hospitality and how to have a conversation.
So, on a whim Friday, after seeing this post, I decided to have a tea party in honor of Our Lady of Altagracia, who I had never heard of before reading the post. The girls absolutely LOVED it! We had Candy Cane tea and cinnamon rolls. I showed them the picture of Our Lady of Altagracia and gave them a quick summary of her story. We talked about the Dominican Republic, where the image of Our Lady of Altagracia is, and we prayed two of the short prayers mentioned on Shower of Roses. The girls were under strict instructions not to touch one single item of the tea set, except their tea cups and only when I was sitting there with them. They did remarkably well (though there were many reminders to "sit still...don't touch that...")! We discussed some manners and etiquette during our tea party and nothing got broken! (Believe me, I was holding my breath!)
I hope to make an afternoon tea party part of our weekly activities. It probably won't be quite so fancy or have my special tea set each time. I am hoping though to sit down at least once a week and have a special time to have a snack together and either converse or maybe read a story to the girls. I'd love to start reading some more story books (like The Little Blue House by Colleen Drippe) instead of just picture books, but we'll see if they are ready for that!
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