Do you know the John Denver song? It’s one of my favorites. Seriously, there’s no better medicine for the cold Monday morning blues than John Denver.
Earlier this month, I spent some time with my parents in the corn and bean fields of downstate Illinois. We did a lot, which I’ll be sharing this week, but one of the most relaxing days was on Wednesday when my dad and I cruised the country roads together. We went to renew my license, went thrifting, had ice cream and on the way home we decided to take the long way. My dad pointed out who lived in each of the farm houses, where people I knew lived, and we had a lovely chat. It reminded me of when I was a student driver and got my blue slip. My dad rode along with me on my first drive through the country. He put his seat back and was the most chill I’ve ever seen him.
I’d forgotten how relaxing driving can be. When I was a teenager (driving my 1983 Cutlass) we “cruised” along the “main drag” (Illinois Route 89) of our small town before and after school every day…and in the evenings, after homework and supper. (It was a very small town with nothing better to do. Riding along in each other’s cars was the equivalent of hanging out at the mall, I guess.) When the speed limit is thirty and there’s no traffic, driving is fun!
Now that I live in a more urban area, I would have to drive a long way and through a lot of traffic to get to this kind of driving. There is just something so soothing about cruising along the winding rural roads, going no place in particular, where you hardly see anyone except maybe an occasional farmer or the mailman.
Don’t get me wrong…I love where we live. I love being able to walk or take the train to so many different places (as opposed to having to drive for twenty-plus minutes to get groceries or to eat out), especially in snowy weather. (Gosh, I really don’t miss driving in that!) But sometimes, I wish we had a little country house to retreat to when the city gets annoying. Then when times got tough, I could just hop in my car, turn on some John Denver and drive my blues away.
On Sunday, I spent the afternoon with fellow gardeners at the Forest Park Community Garden Seed Swap. It was my 
In addition to swapping seeds, we listened as 
Do you know 
Parcel Ghost (with the help of 
I’ve been a Parcel Ghost fan for quite awhile, reading his zines and using his stickers on my mail. (Santa often leaves zines and Parcel Ghost treats 
(He really liked the strawberry donut.)
My friend 
We started planning the tea back in November and we went a little crazy with the plaid. Peggy has an amazing collection of plaid tablecloths, napkins, and runners that she brought over, along with loads of dishes, a Scottie dog, a lighthouse light, and many more additions to the table. 
We set the table with Peggy’s dishes and a collection of lighthouse statues from my mom’s house. I also made a little banner from twine and plaid triangles and strung it up with two gold garlands I’ve used for a few parties. (All three fell down during the party–womp, womp.) 
Karen made lighthouse place cards and we added a little Scottie dog shortbread cookie for each setting. 
We tried to be really careful not to make the table look too Christmasy and I think we succeeded thanks to the addition of the blue plates and glasses and the black place mats. 
I mixed up a cocktail that was bubbly and tasty. (I’ll share the recipe later this week!) 
We drank cocktails and ate a cucumber appetizer before we sat down for the tea. 
We enjoyed Waldorf Salad, bacon shortbread cookies, Meyer lemon & almond scones with clementine curd and Meyer lemon curd and Devonshire cream, and two types of tea sandwiches, ham with apricot cream cheese and chicken salad with grapes, thyme, and toasted almonds. (Thanks, Marissa, for the suggestion!) And of course, we drank tea! So much tea that we could have floated away. (We drank 
For dessert, Karen made Scottish cream puffs, which were so delicious and really a perfect way to end our feast. It was so much fun and I love that I got to share the party with friends who appreciate all of the tiny details in the planning.
Naoto and I loved experiencing Japanese coffee culture during our last trip to Japan and now, we can enjoy a bit of it here in Chicago! 
Hiroshi Sawada is an award-winning Japanese barista and latte artist who owns a shop, Steamer Coffee Co, in Tokyo. This is Sawada’s first coffee shop outside of Japan. (You can read a little bit about it 
Naoto ordered the Sawada Style Cold Brew, an iced coffee mixed with Japanese shochu. It came in a pot and was poured into a glass sitting in a box, similar to the way 
I had a Benedictine Chai Steamer, a chai latte with Benedictine liqueur added. Both were amazing. 
We found a seat at the windows, in spite of the place being crazy busy. 
I couldn’t resist trying a matcha latte, too…it was the perfect mix of strong matcha with a tiny bit of sweetness. 
We can’t wait to go back again soon…for the coffee and the postcards. 
One last thing about the holidays…
In addition to the egg salad, we had ham salad, cucumber sandwiches, and chicken salad served in little bread boats, lemon cranberry scones and English toffee scones served with lemon curd, cream and cranberry butter, grape salad, toffee pudding, plum cake, and Christmas cookies. (I think that’s everything!)
I also made 
And, because I think every party needs a little paper element, I made these simple place cards out of some red cardstock, my 
Peggy’s tables were delightfully decorated, as always. 
We read 
I labeled each glass with a year marker made from black cardstock cut with a 2-inch circle punch and tied on with twine. (This may have been overkill since we stayed at the table for most of the party.) 
We tasted each wine in order of year and wrote little notes on the paper at our place setting. It was fun talking about the wines even though we were all far from wine experts! Next time, I’ll have copies of tasting notes for everyone–something like 
kimberly ah 