A very proper tea, indeed.

Kay, so, technically, I'm not really supposed to say, "I'm in remission," or "I'm a survivor" for like five more years.  But here's the deal:  the scans after my mastectomy showed no more cancer, anywhere else in my body.  And, just to be safe, we kicked my body's butt with chemo, radiation, and now herceptin.  I asked my I.F. oncologist, "So when can I say, 'I'm in remission'?"  And he said, "You can say it now!  As far as the scans go, you are in remission.  You are cancer free." 

I'm taking him at his word.

So my mom decided to throw me a Cancer-Free Parteeee.  I suppose we could have called it, "The One Year Down and Hopefully We're Good Party," but that's not nearly as catchy, eh? 

And leave it to my mom to figure out the coolest thing we could do - a tea party at a historic house in Idaho Falls!  Apparently this business, where this lady has tea parties at her house, has been around since 1998.  I wish I had heard about it sooner!  It is so very, very cool.  My mom throws the BEST parties.  I really think she should be an event planner.  For now, she is content to be Number One Mom and Grandma. 

Mom decided to throw it when all my sisters were going to be around, but also in conjunction with my 20-year class reunion, because many of my old classmates are still in touch with me and really reached out to me when I was getting my diagnosis and going through chemo and all.  We were only allowed strictly 20 people - no more - at the venue, so we did our very best to try to include everyone.  I'm sure we missed someone, and that makes me feel badly.  Please, don't be mad.  Or, if you're mad, direct your anger at my mom.  Haha!  Just kidddddding....

When we arrived, the lady would choose hats for us that kind of coordinated with our outfits.  Or you could pick your own.  She had them all hanging on the walls.  A lot of ladies brought their own hats to wear.  My mom's was absolutely perfectly matched with her outfit:

Since I am a matchie-matchster, I appreciate Mom's matchie-matchsterness.

Then we all settled down to have tea.  The lady told us something really fascinating about the gloves that women would wear back at the turn of the century and earlier.  When it came time to have tea, they would take the gloves off and lay them on the table.  If a woman was married, the fingers of the gloves pointed toward the center of the table.  If she was single and looking, one glove's fingers dangled from the edge of the table, with the other pointing toward the center of the table.  If she was single and NOT looking, she laid them sideways, with the fingers pointing toward her plate.  Fascinating, no?

And then we were left to mingle while we ate what I can best describe as Little Foods.  There were several courses of little foods.  My favorite were the British-style scones with freshly whipped cream dolloped on top.  Oh baby.  I could have eaten fifty of those things.  Lex took the following picture, I believe.

She really is quite the still life arteest with that phone of hers.  This was the Pound Cake and Sherbet course.  Mmmm.

The house is arranged such that there were two tables, one in each adjacent room, and that made me sad, because I wish we could have all been at one table.  I wanted to talk with and hang out with every single person there!  Maybe we should have done it like speed-dating.  Ding!  And the next darling friend to chat with.  Haha!  I get major FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), and I didn't want anything fun happening at the other table when I wasn't there, dang it!  Apparently I missed the stand-up routine of Natott and Lextello:

Haha!  But our table had a blast, too.  A few high school friends were at that table, and we talked about the boys we crushed on in elementary/junior/high school.  It was great.  Em (She is SO PHOTOGENIC!  So jealous! She is beautiful, inside and out):

And the equally photogenic, supportive, and lovely Nicole:

My good friend/best-neighbor-ever/visiting teachee, Casady, was sur ma table, aussi:

My two crafty friends, whom I am proud to say I introduced to each other, were aussi sur ma table:

My sister's adorable in-laws were at my table, too.  You'll see them in a minute.  At the other table were my fabbity fab-fab mom, my sweet Aunt Terri (pictured with Nat Farley and Lexi Spade):

My fierce and loyal friend, Apes:

And one more of my sister's in-laws, my English-teaching soulmate and blogging idol, Mindy (you'll see her in a minute, too.)

All of these people were so good to me during some of my darkest times, and I was tickled to have them there with me.

After we had all eaten, the lady had us pass around this star thing and make a wish for me (me, me, me, me!), a wish for themselves, and a wish for someone else they know.  Some people chose to keep their wishes private.  Some people made really nice wishes for me; I was trying not to get choked up.  Since I was the guest of honor, I got to make two wishes for myself and one for someone else.  So I wished that 1)  I'll never, ever, ever have cancer again, of any type, 2)  That my lymphedema will go away, and 3)  That my father-in-law will recover from his cancer treatment and live the rest of his life out in health and happiness.  (Love you, Greg!)

Let's get to some more pictures.  I love this one of my sesstras:

Could my hat beeee any cuter??  I have to show you another one with us, because by some weird trick of the light/my sister Beads' razor-like cheekbones, she looks like that plastic surgery lady who gets surgeries to look like a cat:

Hahahaha!  (I'm frowning because I was told to do a real old-fashioned pose, and that's what people did back then - they just stared and frowned.  Perhaps I was also frowning because I missed out on the comic duo of Lexel and Natdy.  FOMO, people.  FOMO.)

But seriously.  Lady who wants to look like a cat:

 And Catwoman Beads:

Haha!  Don't worry; she's the one that showed me the picture and told me she looked like Plastic Surgery Cat Lady and laughed.  So I feel alright about sharing the chuckles.

Out front with the sisters, and mama, and the auntie:

 My Megs:

And alll of us!

Top row:  Beads, Nat, Lex, Mindy (blogging idol), Joyce (another junior high English teaching warrior), Casady, Marmie, Terri, Kathleen.  Middle row:  Aprillium and Becky, sweet mother of very tall and very smart children.  Bottom row:  Megs, moi, Jenny (Sister to Mindy, daughter to Joyce, in-law to Becky, and also, one of my high school classmates!), Nicole the photogenic, and Em the photogenic.

Nicole, you look a bit like Carmen Sandiego in that hat.  I like it.  Jenny's hat was completely, perfectly matched to her dress.  It was kismet.

We decided to take one in the true spirit of the turn of the century, with very serious faces, indeed. 

Hahaha!  Snort.  Look at my mom's face!  Seriously, double click on this picture.  It will give you a good belly laugh.

Thanks, Ma Mere, for throwing me such a fabulous party.  And thanks, ladies, for being there for me.  I love each of you so much.