by Sherri A. Stanczak

Created on: November 30, 2009

GRANDMA'S TEA SET

A couple of years ago, my oldest grand-daughter, Skylar had a little Dora table and chairs in her playroom. On that table were little plastic cups, saucer and a teapot. Every time I went over there, Skylar insisted on having a little tea party. We sat at the little table sipping on imaginary tea, eating invisible snacks and having good conversation. For some reason, this made her happy and she began asking her aunts, uncles and her other grandparents to join her in a tea party as well.

When my youngest grand-daughter, Chloe got a little older; I had this bright idea to have a real tea party. You know put real tea in the little tea cups. After we did this the first time, I realized that it probably wasn't the best idea. I'm almost positive that my daughter-in-law didn't like the idea either, but she never said anything about it. For one thing, I didn't use decaffeinated tea, so they were a little hyper. Plus, they didn't just spill the tea; they managed to get sugar all over the floor too. We did have a great time though.

The word got around that we were having these tea parties and my mom bought them a cute little tea set for us to use. It was a little bigger than the one we were using so we didn't have to refill the tea and sugar so often. I also found them a little tea party book, which gave a few ideas about tea parties. It was adorable.

This summer while Skylar was on summer vacation, I started babysitting much more. Most of the time, I watched the girls at their house, but they started coming out to my house also. One day while they were here, they wanted to have a tea party. That's when I realized that I didn't have a tea set. Of course, I have this huge collection of those tiny, tiny tea sets, but most of the cups are about the size of a thimble. I started rummaging through my kitchen drawers and cabinets to see what I could improvise with and use for our tea party. I looked at the very top of one of my cabinets and I saw my grandma's china set. It had tea cups, saucers, plates, a creamer and sugar bowl. I even found a porcelain tea pot which did not match, but it was fairly similar.

At first, I thought to myself, No, I should save these dishes. As I continued to look around, I thought more about it. What was I really saving this china for? I had three sons one who was going through a divorce. I didn't have any daughters to hand them down to. Not to mention, they had been up in my cabinet for more than 12 years not being used.

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