Christine Evans will remember 2012 as the year she and a group of her friends got a letter from the British monarchy.
After hosting a "British High Tea Social & Fashion Show" for fun at her Pottsville home with 15 guests Aug. 12, Evans, 60, decided to send a group photo, taken by Susan Doller, Pottsville, to Queen Elizabeth II.
Evans wasn't expecting a reply but on Dec. 10, she got one from the queen's lady-in-waiting, the Honorary Annabel Whitehead.
"When I saw the queen's crown on there, I was so excited. I started screaming. I was shaking," Evans said Thursday.
In her hand-written letter to the queen, Evans said: "Recently, I had family and friends for an afternoon spot of tea and a fashion show in my home. The theme was British since London has been hosting the Summer Olympics."
The letter was also signed by her tea party guests: Evans's sisters, Marsha Bohr and Bev Holley, both of Pottsville; and friends and family including Dot Loy, Karen Moran, Kathi Ward, Meadow and Tina Eckert, Maureen Evans, Helen Lesko, Edna Uranko, Lila Evans, Lily Evans, Peyton Eckert and Bin Bin Ying.
In the Dec. 6 response, Whitehead wrote: "The queen wishes me to write and thank you all for the card, group photograph and kind message which you sent, having enjoyed watching the London 2012 Olympics. Her Majesty has been touched by the wonderful response to this historic year and hopes you will understand that, because of the enormous number of messages received in the past few months, it has not been possible to reply to you until now. I am to thank you all very much once again for writing as you did."
"And we're British ourselves. Our ancestors are from England, and we drank tea all the time growing up," Bohr, 53, said Thursday.
Now, Evans is thinking of how to top herself in 2013.
"I don't know how I'm going to beat this. I'll have to get a celebrity to come by the house next," she said.
"I want to do a Mad Hatter party, as long as she sends a photo of us to Johnny Depp," Bohr said.
Evans works as a "ticket aide" in the cafeteria at Pottsville Area's John S. Clarke Elementary. Her family includes her husband, Charles Evans Jr.
Evans and her family started hosting themed tea parties in 2008.
"That summer, I was taking care of my friend's daughter along with my grandson, and I have a lot of elderly neighbors and one day we're sitting out front and I thought, 'I know they're sitting in their houses all day and they're lonely.' And I said, 'Wouldn't it be nice to have something for the neighbors, an afternoon out,' " Evans said.
With that in mind, Evans decided to bring family, friends and neighbors together for tea parties. It started out with a party of five people and every one has gotten bigger, she said.
She tries to hold four a year, usually in the warmer months of June, July, August and September.
"It's nice to get together with my sisters, Tina and Beverly. We have crazy fun and we've always had a fun household growing up. My mother and father always loved to entertain. That's in our blood, and Tina kind of brought that back for us. And we love to dress up," Bohr said.
