Happy Birthday To Jane Austen!

Jane Austen was born on December 16th 1775. 

For the past few years I have had a tea party to celebrate with other friends who are Austen fans and a couple of friends I would like to convert to be Austen fans...Tammy and Marie...I'm still hoping for you!

For the tea, I have a menu that I use every year.  For the luncheon we have Sweet onion tart, cucumber sandwiches, and crumpets with cloted cream.

Sweet Onion Tart

Then for the desserts (the most important part next to the tea), we had 3 flavors of scones, cream wafers, strawberry tarts, and lemon cake cookies. 

I made 4 flavors of tea and also, since it is almost Christmas, I made some Wassail, for our drinks.  The most popular flavor of tea for the past 2 years has been the dessert tea, "Almond Sunset" (YUM, the best with cream and sugar).

I usually set the tables with placemats of pictures from different Austen books, miniture tea pots and my favorite flower, and English primrose that I plant into teacups and run down the center of the table. 

I also have stacks of Jane Austen trivia questions on each table for my friends to try to see how much they know about Jane Austen  and her books. 

Then we are ready for the party to begin!

Here is (l to r) Diana, my daughter, Marie, Anita is hiding but you can see her sleeve, Kim (who studied Austen at Oxford University), Tammy, Lori, Sheli, Jennifer, Susan (also hiding), and Megan (yes we have the next generation that likes to come also!)

Then we have (l to r) Carrie, Joan, Dorothy(mother of the soon to be bride, keep reading and you will understand), Charlotte, Leslie, Tiffany, Linndsy (who is getting married next week and she still had time to join us!), and Alicia. 

Yes, that is me in the costume...any excuse right, here with Lori, Sheli, Jennifer, and Susan

Me again with Charlotte and Carrie

I had a quiz that some of the ladies took to see which female Austen character they are most like and which male character they would be the most compatible with.  I am the most like Anne Elliot from Persuasion and my "guy" is Captain Wentworth also from Persuasion.  Maybe that is why it is my favorite book!  It is nice to have friends that humor me with my crazy party ideas.   It was also fun and we had a great time taking a break from the Christmas rush for some great conversation about Jane Austen. 

Celebrate the day with all the Austen fans out there!