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Saturday, November 17, 2018

Happy Thanksgiving, Jan Karon Shepherd's Abiding Christmas Book Giveaway!


Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving this week! I can't believe it is already that time of year... with my husband's illness we have missed half of it!
He is struggling with an infection and the side effects of an antibiotic, so things are still less than predictable day by day...
But..
We have so much to be thankful for!

I thought I would share...because it coincided with this week 2 years ago... an afternoon tea we had in Victoria, BC during the visit of Prince William and Catherine and the kids...
We had a Canadian friend call who wanted to get together for a few hours while she was enroute on Vancouver Island, so we decided to go.  After our time with her, we decided on having afternoon tea. 





It happened to be during the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Vancouver Island, so we knew the Fairmont Empress was having a special Royal tea for 3 weeks...but, as we were last minute, it was booked up, so we had tea at the hotel Grand Pacific where we usually stay when in Victoria....



It is much more modern than the Empress, and convenient for us being right across the street from our Black Ball Ferry terminal. Their Pacific restaurant host their West Coast Afternoon tea... It's pretty minimalist decor...


I want to apologise in advance for the photos taken with my phone camera...not the best, but...this was the table setting...and notice the tea bowl instead of cup and saucer....the menu was definitely east/west and west coast in composition...lovely! And they have a tea sommelier!


There was a large selection of teas...green, white, black blended and wellness teas....I chose the Darjeeling...my favorite...and my husband had the Grand Pacific Blend especially blended for the hotel by Silk Road, a local tea blender, that is mostly a green tea.


The sommelier presented first the tea to show and explain them...The Organic Grand Pacific Tea is described as "A rejuvenating blend of ginger, green tea, lemongrass, lavender, rose, citrus and rose hips" and was delicious!


Each pot had a really cool locking steeper basket from the London Pottery Company.


The menu for the foods served was...in case you can't read this...

Amuse...
which in this case was a tempura Spot Prawn...a large local shrimp delicacy... skewered on a red pepper coulis...


Then the tower arrived...and contained savories on the bottom, then the scones and desserts on top:


Savories
Free run organic egg salad on smoked salmon rye bread pudding
Sake compressed cucumber on okonomi-yaki
Lime and sweet chile endamame
Chicken liver pate' on crostini
mini Dungeness Crab cake
Dill and baby Shrimp on mini croissant



Scones and  Sweets

Pumpkin spice financier
Vanilla bean scones with cream and jam
Flavoured scone...
ours were orange cranberry
Lemon raspberry mousse slice
Salted caramel chocolate tart...
absolutely incredible delicious...glad they were small...I think...
Praline profiteroles
assorted truffles and macarons


We didn't finish it all, and it was really delicious. They also sent us home with small ins of the Grand Pacific tea as momentos. Very nice!


My Jim Shore Thanksgiving angel is out...and I came across this graphic on Facebook and shared it on my page, but it certainly puts the last few weeks in a nutshell...a refocusing on blessings...




As promised...here is the information on my giveaway...
just in time for Christmas

For fans of Jan Karon's Mitford and Father Tim
or
to get a chance to try a wonderful, heartwarming series...

I am giving away a hardback copy with dust jacket of 

Shepherd's Abiding




I have the hardback too, a gift from my husband when it came out which I read again every year about now... 
My sweet husband found 
this last spring while getting his blood drawn at the hospital.  
There is a Friends Of The Library honor book kiosk there at the hospital, and thought I might have someone to give it to...

And that's one of you, dear blog friends!

The drawing will be open to US and Canada readers only, because I want it to get to you as soon as possible before Christmas.

To enter:
Leave the comment Enter Me between today,  Saturday November 17th 
and Monday, November 25th.
I will draw a name via Random.org and announce the winner on my Tuesday Cuppa Tea blog post on Monday, November 26th...Cyber Monday!



I will hopefully reach the winner quickly via email to get your snail mail address, so if you are not a blogger, please leave an email address, or check the blog post and contact me through my sidebar Email Me link.

18 comments:

  1. My hubby got me Jan Karon's book for Christmas last year and yes, it is a wonderful story! Nice give-away for someone! Please don't include me because I already have it.
    Your tea time in Victoria certainly looked delicious. My son who lives in Vancouver always stays at the Empress whenever he's on business in Victoria which is quite often. Happy Thanksgiving, dear Ruth!

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  2. Happy Thanksgiving,dear Ruth!God bless you and your husband!

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  3. I love Jan Karon, and thank you for sharing "I woke up..."

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  4. Though not the first to comment, I guess I get to be the first to say, "Enter Me". Ruth Bowen :)

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  5. Enter me. Your afternoon tea looks delicious!

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  6. Enter me. I love reading about your teas, and seeing the photos of all of your teacups and treasures

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  7. Enter me. Lately I have been reading about many gals recommending this book but I confess I have never read it.
    Happy Thanksgiving for later this week Ruth.

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  8. Enter me. I love Jan Karon's books, Ruth. I enjoyed reading about your special teatime, and seeing the pictures. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your sweetie...praying for both of you.

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  9. Thank you for your review of the Grand Pacific's afternoon tea. I may be visiting Victoria in March and would like to try a venue for afternoon tea other than the Empress. The savory menu is quite impressive with some dishes I've never had at tea before.
    Happy Thanksgiving and blessings to you and your husband!
    (I appreciate the giveaway offer, but I will pass as I'm a bit behind in my book club reading. Glad to be back blogging!)

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  10. Victoria is on my bucket list so I enjoyed your photos of your afternoon tea at the Hotel Grand Pacific. Thank you for sharing and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

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  11. Thank you for this opportunity to win! I have never read a Jan Karon book, but heard they are very good. I also love Christmas books.

    You tea sounds like it was lovely!

    I hope your husband is feeling better! God bless you!

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  12. What a lovely giveaway, Ruth, but please don't enter me as I am trying to clear out some books before I bring any more in! :D Your day in Victoria sounds wonderful. I hope to visit there again some day. A beautiful afternoon tea is a must when in Victoria! I hope your husband's infection and side effects clear up soon.

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  13. What a great giveaway. Enjoy your blog. Happy Thanksgiving

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  14. Mrgie Hunter has won the Jan Karon giveaway! Margie... please email me at antiques and teacups at gmail dot com with your address... your Blogger profile has no other way of contacting you :)

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Thanks for visiting and we love to hear from you! We read every comment. If my husband's health permits, I love to visit andreply. Have a wonderful day and a cuppa tea always at hand! :)