January is National Hot Tea Month so since I’ve never had a tea party with my boys, I thought today would be a good occasion to do that. It didn’t quite work out like I planned.

I bought a Celestial Seasonings Herbal Tea Sampler and the plan was to have a little taste test of the different teas.

What actually happened was that as I was heating the water, the box got ripped open, as did the five packets of tea (each flavor had its own packet inside). Since the tea bags don’t have any strings or labels on them, basically we had 18 packets of herbal tea and no idea which was which. We tried classifying by smelling, but the only one we were sure about was the peppermint flavor.

So each of us had our own mug of hot water and picked whichever bag smelled the best to us. Through some Googling, we learned that about five minutes is a good time to steep tea. We also learned that tea originated in China and about the etiquette of a high tea. (Takeaways were keep your pinkie down when sipping your tea, don’t leave your spoon in your cup and that it’s OK to dunk your biscuits in your tea in the privacy of your own home but absolutely not in public.) (Explanations were read in a British accent, of course.)

I realized that as a mother of three boys, I have no experience at tea parties. I don’t ever remember having one growing up nor did we ever have a dainty little tea party set among the boys’ playthings. So this was a first for us.

Our Medley Moments:

Lesson learned: Things may not always go the way you expect it to, but that’s OK.

We also learned another lesson tonight, from tonight’s football game, which my 9-year-old was so excited about that he insisted I watch the last 14 seconds: Even if it looks like you are losing and there are only 14 seconds left, give it your all and you might still have a chance at the Big Game. Go, Vikings! (My parents grew up in Minnesota and although football isn’t really my cup of tea, I’m cheering for the Vikings for that reason.)

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