How was your weekend? Quiet here and raining part of the time. Today was beautiful, though.

On Saturday I attended a tea given by a local women's club. It was called St. Nicholas' Tea. The club members wore aprons and served us three courses: scones with lemon curd, then tea sandwiches (my very favorite), followed by sweet little desserts. We had two pots of tea on our table and poured ourselves. Around the perimeter of the small room were things for sale, many with a Christmas theme for gifts. There were also two women playing harps. It was really quite lovely. I already plan to go next year.

I just remembered a memory that I will share with you: I was a little girl, eating lunch in John Wanamaker's Department Store's Crystal Tea Room in Philadelphia and eating, of course, tea sandwiches. I also remember in one of the large department stores there was a large ladies lounge. Times certainly have changed. Along with the regular bathroom facilities, there was a separate very large room containing lovely sofas and chairs and writing desks (complete with pens and writing paper). This was where the ladies could relax during a shopping break. I remember this in the 1950's and 60's.

John Wanamaker was a wonderful department store. They even had a ladies hatmaker back in the day. Wanamakers was well known for the Christmas Light Show which was accompanied by organ music from a large pipe organ that came from the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. People stopped in their shopping to watch the show, or people made a special visit to the store to see the show with their children. It is still a Philadelphia tradition. Today you can still go there to see it even though John Wanamakers Department Store is out of business and is now Macy's. Thank goodness Macy's has continued the tradition.