...and we'll all have tea

My daughters had their first tea party about as soon as the younger one could hold a cup. It was Christmas, as I recall, and the oldest of the two had been waiting and planning the event for a very long time.
Before she had a little sister,  my oldest daughter, my Amy,  had tea parties with her dolls and stuffed animals, the occasional barely willing relative, but she sought an eager second. Her brother was hardly a baby any time. She later told me that she started praying for a baby sister almost as soon as she realized her baby brother was not given to tea parties, dress up and the like.
Much to everyone's surprise (everyone but her, that is) her prayers were answered some five years later. Amy was  eight years old when her  baby sister was born. She had her own, real live doll and made the most of it. Never more than when Christmas rolled around and it was time to pull out her Christmas cups.
Amy's godfather, a close friend from college, started her collection of Christmas cups for her first Christmas. He kept up the tradition for a few years and then we all began buying pieces for her. By the time the little sister arrived, Amy had enough pieces to set a pretty table. And set the table she did. She has been setting the table every Christmas since.
At some point she decided to the Beatrix Potter tea set her Nana and Granddaddy had given her pieces of for Easter through the years to host a Spring tea party for her youngest sibling.
There have been tea party birthdays and Girl Scout tea parties. There have been various guests and events with tea party themes. Once, on vacation in Williamsburg, Virginia, the girls attended an American Girl Tea Party dressed in colonial period clothing.
Amy's love of tea parties has not waned. Her "baby" sister is now 22 years old. Even during her college years she  planned her schedule around the annual Christmas and Easter tea parties.
One of the first things Amy said, upon becoming an aunt was "this means more of us for tea."
It has also meant more tea more often. Last weekend, there was a small "Mother's Day Tea."
A tea party for Valentine's Day is now a given. Usually, there are a couple, at least, in the fall.
Sometimes they are inside and sometimes outside. Sometimes they are dress up events and sometimes they are casual. Sometimes the table decorations are rather elaborate and sometimes quite plain. The menu varies.
A snow day is the perfect excuse for a tea party in the front of the fireplace. Any time, in Amy's opinion, is a good time for a tea party. It is one tradition that is being kept in good stead.