Tea with my Aunt Arlene

When I planned to retire I thought I would like to take tea to people in nursing homes or retirement communities. It was my way of paying back for the care given to my mother, as I lived too far from her to do so myself. I decided I should start with my Aunt Arlene. Recently I served my aunt tea in her retirement community apartment. My niece, Suzie, came along and we had a lovely afternoon of sharing over cups of tea and food. My aunt had recently given me her china, which I used to serve the tea. She enjoyed seeing her china and serving pieces again and reminisced about each piece and where she had found it. She was great at finding treasures at garage sales. As my aunt loved flowers I tried to incorperate them into the menu. For sandwiches we had calla lily sandwich of cream cheese and Marmalady's Orange Triple Sec Marmalade, chicken curry on croissants, and egg salad with nastursiums. Included in the menu was fresh fruit salad with many of the locally grown berries. Then for sweets we had cupcakes with lemon curd and apple oatmeal cookies. The apple oatmeal cookies were a recipe created by another aunt. In eating the cookies we had fun discussing recipes and how each of my aunts liked to cook. It was a great afternoon of sharing and enjoying each others company.