The One and Only Tea Room: Tea, muffins and champagne served at all hours

[BoccaDellaNativita]

Well folks, here we are!

We were on the brink of filling the old thread so I thought we'd better start a new one now. There was a rumour that we were going to be evicted from our old premises, but we managed right at the last minute to get an extension on the lease. So it's business as usual. We're still in our charming old tea room, overlooking our beautiful garden complete with ha-ha and duck pond. And Mellors the gardener.

Please come and join us for a celebratory drink.

Yes - I have been busy too - packing.

Tomorrow we start our long journey back to
Bethleham Suffolk!

Stopping on route in London to say hello to dear old St Nick who happens to be in London village too.

I have been lurking on a few threads inbetween.

Hey - Pass me some Twiglets, please Bocca!

Did you want a glass of champagne??? It is nearly Christmas, don't forget!

Hi all - please pass the champers!
My mum is here (terribly excited emoticon) which is why I haven't been hanging out in the tea room, but I do miss you all!
HUGS!!

Afternoon all! Glad there is some Poinsettia left, even with the straw in the jug!

Ahh, dear old tea room - where else is there a love affair with Mellors and George and Face Serum and Virago all at once!

CMOT you should be with Cmottiddler reading already! Daisyboy is 2 years and 6 months too and has no interest at all and I like to think we are a literary household??
perhaps it is all that modelling and in-line skating that is holding him back?!?!

CTiddler sounds splendid!

We have parents desperate to send over books too, but my Mum keeps sending form 1 projects on mushrooms and stuff that she has horded for years. Pre-DaisyBoy I would have chucked them without pause, now I want to keep them, not for me but for the little moments of letting go they represent for her... how confused is that!

and don't get me started on Jonathon Toomey - are there enough tears??

Right my dears, I am trying to finish up work so we can PARTY for CHRISTMAS at Daisy Mansions

Tonight we have friends for supper, tomorrow we shop and go to the Winter Wonderland in London and then it's off!

So I shall see you all soon, have wonderful times and wonderful everything....

Oh the delights of shared childcare!!! Had a phone call at 8am this morning to say that the people who were looking after ds today and tomorrow had children throwing up from midnight onwards. MJ therefore came to the office with me this morning - he was remarkably good, particularly as none of the computers apparently have any sound which meant that he couldn't (apparently) play the Ceebeebies games - he did some stickers, cutting and colouring in a magazine, colouring and hole punching (A3 size) and not doing a jigsaw. Oh, and eating. He has been eating ever since he got up this morning and not stopped much. Based on the quantity of food that's going in at the moment together with the apparent sudden weight gain, I think we're probably in for a growth spurt - which will probably mean that he will grow out most of the trousers (which he is the correct age for at the moment)

MJ is a great book lover (he's 3.8, so a bit older than Daisyboy or CMOT junior) and has been doing phonics at school - although he has known all the letters so far - but he is just starting to put them together and 'spelling out' words (although he has been able to spell and/or write his name for a while). Sometimes he'll have a nap and when you go in to wake him he has a book or two under his arm rather than a soft toy.... . We would have made more effort to achieve reading if he hadn't been going to school this year - but, as he was, we thought it better that he should learn at school.

Well, I have managed to post the first Christmas present today... (no, not joking , tree still in the garden, cards unwritten..., so I'm taking shelter in the tea room - although I do have a big stack of cards to write sitting on the table next to my teapot....)

Hi Mistle, want to swop the tea for a nice glass of bubbly?

had friends over for supper it was jolly good even though two cried off with Man Flu and a Cough....I wanted to say, "Show me your Cough and I will raise you!" but I didn't think that was very hostest with mostest....

I posted my presents today [smug] and my tree is up and decorated [double smug] but I haven't made a single mince pie or finished work or written and cards....[not so smug]

Hence I am finishing work lurking in the tearoom while my lovely DH does all the washing up!!

so peaceful!

Back in for tea again today - luckily friends had 24hr bug, clear for 24hrs so ds with them today as originally planned (forgot to warn them about amount he is eating at present though although I am sure that he'll ask for more if necessary )

Is there any soup today? Is there any bread - all seems a bit deserted....

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Love to everyone!!

((Hugs))
((Kisses))
((Supportive pats on arm))

Lovely to see you! Merry Colonial Christmas to you all!

Thank you!
We're all having a leisurely morning except for Jackbaby who is racing around as if he's the one who's had coffee this morning, not me .
We've had an enormous snowfall last night - there is about a foot of new snow on the ground. Looks lovely but has everyone in the area in a tizzy because we're more used to the white stuff falling on the mountains than our streets, LOL.
Anyone opening any champers by chance? [hopeful emoticon]

Well, that's three bottles opened. Shall we have it as it comes or would you prefer a Bucks Fizz?

Merry Christmas to Jack on his first Christmas! Cheers!

Merry Christmas to the Jack Family and the Bocca Family!
And everyone else who frequents this lovely sanctuary!!

Happy Christmas to everyone! Not that I expect anyone to drop in for a while, as you will all be celebrating with the Nearest and Dearest. The entire Racing Reindeer establishment is now officially ill. Nearest and Dearest are respectively now lying in bed coughing and lying on my lap here in the tea room snoring loudly and occasionally waking up to cry a bit more and quaver,'OK, Maman.' She only ever says she's OK when she really isn't. It's a sign of impending panic.

Well, happy Christmas again, all. No doubt see you all after the festivities.

Budge up there love, I'm coming to join you for a bit. We usually celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, but my mum-in-law is snowed in and can't get to ours, and we're not doing pressies and dinner without her - so we're doing the whole shebang tomorrow. I have a cheesecake in the oven so I have an hour to spare, everyone else is holed up doing whatever. Don't mind Jackbaby on my lap, he's been nursing like a tanker truck today.
I adore "Love, Actually" and I'm sure, given the circumstances, Bocca will forgive the TV's intrusion into the tearoom.

We're in the midst of opening presents but I've just stopped by to say "Merry Christmas".

Cheers!

Merry Christmas and good will to all!

Wa-hay! Christmas is over! All passed at Chateau Racing without a single mince pie, cracker, present being unwrapped or turkey eaten, due to weekend away followed by sickness. All still ill. We were looking forward to gathering at a friend's house where a group of us bring our Christmas leftovers to share on Boxing Day and then go for a long walk, but will still be isolated by plague.

Happy Christmas to JM; can't quite work out if it is today that you are celebrating. Soothing and delicious drinks much appreciated. If there happened to be a slice of that cheesecake left over ....

Tea - how is it in France? Is it all back to work and back to normal on the 26th? I remember one Christmas in Belgium when that seemed to be the case. I also remember that you are not actually in France for Christmas (I think).

Sorry to hear that Chateau Racing is still a house of plague. We have just been to the local park - narrowly avoiding being mown down by the children wobbling along on their new Christmas bikes - where the biting cold has (I hope) killed off any lurking germs.

Now where did I leave the boxes of tea room crackers ...?

Wow! Mince pies!

Festive fascinator very fetching, Bocca. RC just dropped ino a snoring, bubbling sleep (yes, that is what is reverberating through the tea room, not Mellors out in the garden mixing concrete) so some time to peruse ebay and eat mince pies in the tea room fill in my grant application for Cannes.

How is the campaign for our very own fascinator-hatted emoticons going?

I imagine Mellors is sleeping off several Christmas dinners produced by hormonally crazed infatuated kind and caring women in his shed.

Bocca, job of bag carrier/factotum is yours! I think Cannes would be all the better for your company. However, I still need to actually get the grant, and I am making very slow progress with the application. Euroforms are very complicated.

I think I meant, "I imagine Mellors is in his shed sleeping off several Christmas dinners produced by hormonally crazed infatuated kind and caring women." Although for all I know he has them in there cooking for him in teams while also ironing his underpants and darning his socks.