Tea parties have long been a part of my life.

While afternoon tea at the Drake will always be my favorite, the afternoon teas my daughter and I have now will always be the most special.

My daughter’s very first tea party.

One day a few weeks ago it dawned on me to surprise my daughter with an honest to goodness real tea when she got home from school. The only problem was the teapot. I am a collector of china, but teapots eluded me. I have this giant teapot from Crate & Barrel that I bought back in my 20s because it was cute – but it’s so huge that it’s not exactly useful for two people to have tea. I have an old silver tea service that belonged to my Grandma – but it’s kind of a pain to wash.

So I went to Home Goods – that mecca of random serving pieces, china and crystal. I found two pretty little teapots that would go with my china patterns and bought both of them.

When my daughter got home from school, she came home to the table set with china, chocolate wafer cookies, and a brand new teapot filled with actual tea! We sat down, poured each other a cup of tea and chatted about our days. She loved the real tea (Tazo, Calm) and thought the new teapots were just so wonderful and special.

This is truly what afternoon tea is supposed to be. A little break in the late afternoon to allow for a snack and some conversation. My daughter really opened up to me about her 1st grade day, telling me a little bit more than she normally does. A couple of days later when we had another tea after school with the other teapot she did the same thing.

I don’t know if it’s the actual tea or the act of pouring the tea and sipping the warm liquid from the fancy cup but something made my seven year old have an honest to goodness real conversation with me that lasted for about half an hour. I have a funny feeling that these after school teas are going to be an important part of our mother-daughter relationship. I hope she always continues to share her days with me over an afternoon pot of tea.