Tea Time

Here’s a cup,
And here’s a cup,
And here’s a pot of tea.
Pour a cup,
And pour a cup,
And have a drink with me!

--Our Time Milk & Cookies

A simple poem like this can take you back to your childhood memories and evoke such powerful feelings of warmth, love and security....

The year was 1973 and I was a 4 ½ year old preschooler at College Jean Mermoz in the city of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Africa. In December of each year, all the students and their parents gathered outdoors for a spectacular Christmas assembly which featured Santa arriving in a helicopter to pass out gifts to all the children! Yes, this was all together a different time and continent! But that’s how I received my very first miniature teacup set which included 4 porcelain cups and saucers-- there I am in the center of the picture, holding my gift with both hands as Mom looked on a few rows behind me.

After school, I would spend hours hosting “tea parties” in the family room (hmm, sound familiar to those who know me?) and delivering hand written invitations to all my guests which typically included my doll friends, three older siblings, Mom and Dad, and my pets: an outdoor cat, two birdies and a gold fish. Ocassionally, one of my siblings would surprise me and sit down to “have a drink with me” but the one person I could always count on was Mom who never tired of coming but instead seemed to look forward to our tea time as much as I did.

Mom always brought her own pot of piping hot Jasmine or Green tea so we could both take tea together. She’d remind me to wash the plastic toy plates and get them ready for the homemade brioche or croissants, which I'd have way too many. When everything was just so, we’d sit across from one another, sipping tea from my porcelain teacups!

Fast forward to December, 2006. Next month Mom is coming to visit from Seoul, and I know we will find ourselves sitting in the family room once more sharing a warm pot of tea together. Of course, 33 years later, I’ll be the one getting the tea ready and serving Mom homemade goodies I've baked. And we'll play catch up on all our stories.

For those of you currently enrolled in Kindermusik's Our Time Milk & Cookies, and even if you're not, won’t you take time to have tea with your child this Thanksgiving week? Remember, you'll be giving her a lifetime of memories she’ll treasure and thank you for! I know I always will-- thanks, Mom!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

“A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I live in, or the kind of car I drove… but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.” --Dr. Forest E. Witcraft from "Within My Power"

Musically, Miss Sunny
www.musikandmotion.com