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UCW VIRTUAL
CHRISTMAS TEA
AND BAZAAR 2020
AVONDALE UCW
ROOM 1—NO BAKE BAKE SALE In this room you were invited to tell
us what you would have
baked for the bazaar bake room and deli. Or you could tell
us
what you might have purchased at the bazaar. We asked for a
donation of how much you would have spent on making your
item(s) or what you might have spent.
Many of you were very busy.
November 21, 2020
Mary Helen Clifford
Mary Helen shared that she would have cooked beef and turkey,
made pastry, rolled pastry and filled meat pies. “ I would have
made chocolate covered peanuts. I would have filled Su-
san Elliott’s pie shells and would have made whiskey apple spice
to
serve at break time while making the meat pies.”
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Janice Ward
Janice shared “Had the bazaar been held as usual, I would
have donated a couple of fruit
loaves as well as a pot of chili. I
probably would have bought some
shortbread and some meat pies.
Susan Elliott
Susan is always busy making pie shells for meat pies and shells
for us
to fill for the bake table. She also bakes lots of goodies for
the bake
table like these traditional mince tarts and scones.
I hope Susan would have donated these
yummy lemon squares to the tea room.
They look absolutely delicious.
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Barb Schoch I would have cooked turkey and beef for the meat
pies. I
would have baked lots of cookies and squares for the bake
table and made 2 of my famous (ok...only famous to my
family) Winterberry Pies. I would also have been in charge
of the kitchen for the tea room and would have made my
mother-in-law’s pistachio bundt cake to serve in the tea
room. Of course I would also have found time to purchase
lots of goodies donated by everyone else!
I am sure there are many stories of bazaar baking and purchasing
that were not
shared but we all know from years of experience that November
would have
been a busy month preparing for the bazaar. Thanks to those who
shared their
stories and many thanks to those who sent in donations as if
they had attended
the bazaar.
But the best part of the bazaar is the tea room...read on for
our 2020 virtual tea
room stories.
Donna Dinsmore Donna wrote she usually helped in the deli
or tea room.
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ROOM 2—TEA ROOM
The second room in the bazaar was the virtual tea room . In
this
room we asked you to have a virtual tea by phone, skype,
facetime, zoom or whatever method would bring you together
virtually. The tearoom was well attended by many of our mem-
bers. What a great way to stay connected. Hopefully we started a
trend where you will
have virtual teas, lunches and visits with many of your friends,
family and fellow UCW
members over the next months while we are still dealing with
Covid-19.
I have tried to share all the stories I received...if I missed
yours...let me know and I will in-
clude you in our next UCW Newsletter.
Susan and Bill Elliott Susan and Bill enjoyed this fabulous
tea.
This picture brings back memories of tea rooms when we were able
to serve sand-
wiches and goodies.
Susan also shared she had virtual tea with Karen Pethick.
Tea Desserts from 2019 Tea Room
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Terri Sparling
“I had the pleasure of sharing “tea” with Emily (her
daughter)
on the day of the bazaar. We travelled to visit her in
Norwood.
It was great to take time out and sit and chat, very much like
we
would have if the bazaar was in-person and she was home.
Many Thanks.”
Mary Helen Clifford “Using face time, phone and cell phone, I
connected with Ruth Thomson, Sharon Chute and Emma Car-ruthers all
at the same time using speaker phones.”
Tea Desserts from 2019 Tea Room.
Karen Pethick Karen had tea by phone with Barb Kyle and via
Facetime with Susan Elliott
Emma Carruthers Emma is happy she had tea with Mary Helen
Clifford
Jeannette Dyer, Donna Tuffnail, Diane Jackson and Faye
Chessell
These ladies connected for tea and you can be sure that there
was lots of chatter and laughter.
Anne Reuber I had a really good time at the bazaar teas. I had
tea with three different people. Started in the morning with a
friend who doesn’t belong to Avondale. We visited by Skype. It was
good to both see and hear each other while we visited. I have an
extra donation to make as she insisted on buying a ticket. Had tea
with another friend by telephone. She has been really isolated as
there are strict rules against taking risks with COVID where she
lives. She had written the date and time down so as not to forget.
We had a good time visiting by telephone. Missed the dessert
though. Then I had tea with one more UCW friend. She had never
tried Skype before, but was game to try it. Again, the conversation
was wide-ranging and the company delightful. Missed the
decorations, the desserts and the hum of the busy tea room, but
gave thanks for the technology and the UCW bazaar tradition that
allowed friends to meet and visit.
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Mary Tolton
Mary Tolton hosted a Virtual Tea Party on Nov. 21, at 1 p.m. “I
invited my sister and her 4 daughters. As it turned out, my
brother- in- law and my 2 grand nephews also joined in. One niece
resides in Komoko, one in London, England, and the rest live in
London, Ont. Unfortunately, one of the girls had to work. They all
chose to have lunch, even Amy in Eng. where it was 6 p.m. There
were cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, some egg salad, ham, and
even some cut- outs of reindeer and snowflakes. Some were fancy
with dill, mint and lemon added. There were crackers with cheese
curds, Brie and apricots. Then there were desserts including lemon
squares, chocolate croissants, an English scone with clotted cream
and strawberry preserves, cinnamon buns with homemade rhubarb jam.
Add to that Chocolate Bombs which were delightful. They came from
Cream Beanery, Mt. Brydges, if anyone is going that way. Sherri and
Mathias remembered to wear a hat, even a fascinator! We’ll remember
that next time. The teas that were chosen were something else. They
ranged from regular black tea to va-nilla, to Rita MacNeil Tea, to
Buddha Blend, to Tuk Tuk Chai. What can I say? They came to have
fun and they had their Christmas decorations up for the
occasion.
I love this story from Mary...now that is the way to have
virtual tea! She tried to send a picture
too, but it just wouldn’t co-operate.
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Hilda Emerson
This was my Christmas Tea. My Brother Goldie and niece Heather
were planning to do a repeat visit on
November 20th. They had visited in October. At the last minute,
Heather had a sick day...not Covid -
19. Since it was to be a repeat visit, I will describe the first
visit. They arrived at 1pm with a beautiful
mum for Bob and myself. After a house tour we had several hands
of euchre which lead to a tie break-
ing game. Meanwhile we enjoyed snacks and Mud shakes. The
afternoon was completed with tea,
cheese, crackers and grapes. The second visit would have ended
with tea, pineapple angel food cake
with whipped cream and ritz cracker squares. For Goldie and
Heather, it would have been a nice break
as they spend a lot time visiting Jackie (Goldies wife} who
lives in a nursing home. Due to the cancella-
tion, I phoned three girlfriends who live alone. One of them was
Lois Ruller. All people involved in my
Christmas tea had been at our wedding.
Barb Schoch and Sarah Elliott
Sarah and I had a ZOOM tea at 1:00 on the
21st of November. That is my Christmas tea-
pot in the background. There is a better pic-
ture at the top of the Newsletter. Sarah
served her tea in her special Wedgewood Sa-
rah’s Garden teapot which is pictured on page
5 of this newsletter. We shared a lemon
square and had a wonderful visit catching up
on all our news.
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Thanks to all who shared their tea stories. I think there were
lots more who had tea
and if you would like to share your stories it is not too
late.
ROOM 3—SILENT AUCTION
The third virtual bazaar room was the silent auction. We thank
Terri Sparling, Heather Her-
man, David MacLennan, Beth Gledall and Doris Barkley for
providing the auction website
(My apologies if I have forgotten anyone). This auction was held
in conjunction with the
church general membership and we thank them for including the
UCW in the program.
Many items were donated and purchased through the auction. We
hope you enjoyed view-
ing and bidding on the items.
CONCLUDING REMARKS 1. Thanks to all who participated in the
virtual bazaar.
2. At the time of publishing we have raised approximately
$2,265. WOW!
3. This fund-raising helped us meet our 2020 budget for
donations to the M&S
Fund, Camp Bimini and the Resource Centre. With our “extra”
funds, we were
able to donate $1,000 to the Avondale United Church General
Fund. (This was
passed at the December 7, 2020 UCW Christmas Meeting).
4. Caution: Don’t try to print this newsletter...unless you have
lots of coloured
ink!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE
LET’S HOPE NEXT YEAR OUR BAZAAR DOES NOT HAVE TO BE VIRTUAL AND
WE WILL BE
ABLE TO GATHER TOGETHER TO WORK TOGETHER AND ENJOY EACH OTHER’S
COMPANY.