Christmas With The Vanderbilts

We had a fun and festive Thursday in spite of the gray skies and drizzle. Friends had some complimentary tickets to Biltmore House and invited us to use them. 

They actually had four complimentary tickets so another couple of friends came too, and since their car held us all we didn't even have to drive.  

Did  I spend an entire day out of the house doing something fun with family coming to town tomorrow and just a week to go before Christmas? 

Yes I did. Carpe diem!  

Also day date episode eleven if you're keeping count. 

I've been to Biltmore a number of times, but not since 2019 and never at Christmas. Biltmore is known as America's largest home, and was built by George Vanderbilt in the late 1800's.  I've always heard it's extra beautiful this time of year and it's true. Wow. 

Every room has a beautifully decorated tree-

Most light fixtures are adorned with some sort of gorgeous ribbon or embellishment-

Bannisters are wrapped-

And fireplace mantels are draped in garland-

I cannot imagine the amount of work that goes into getting the house ready for Christmas. 

It takes me weeks to get my own tree up and finished, and Biltmore is over the top in terms of decoration. This Noah's Ark tree was adorable-

Animals hanging two by two...

The trees fit the rooms they're in and the decor is appropriate for the period furnishings. 

Christmas dinner anyone? 

You need to reserve tickets this time of year and entry is timed. We went into the house at noon and spent almost two hours walking through. 

After we'd seen all there was to see (or all that's open to the public anyway...apparently the house has 250 rooms so we didn't come close to seeing it all) we drove about thirty minutes up the road to Sierra Nevada for a late lunch. Hubs and I shared a burger and their famous duck fat fries which were yummy. 

We got lucky with traffic and in spite of the dark, rainy, fog made it home about 6:30. It was a fun, full day and while I could have been at home ticking off those last to-dos, celebrating the season with friends is always on my list too.

Check. 

Zilch, Zero, Nada

Z is for Zero

As in how many posts I wrote last week. And in keeping with my theme of things that delight it's also the number of alphabet letters remaining in the April A to Z Blog Challenge so whoohoo!

Let's catch up some, k? Daughter2 had a childhood friend visit the lake last weekend. It rained. And rained and rained and rained. They didn't care even a little bit. They planted themselves on the screened in porch and read through piles of books and talked and read more books and even managed one quick dip in the lake between cloudbursts.

Rainy days and childhood friends are good for the soul. Plus when the rain clears you get a sky that looks like this-

Daughter2's friend flew out Sunday then on Monday friends we made while living in England who now live in Texas but have a lake house in Kentucky came to visit. Did you get all that?

We had glorious weather and spent all day Tuesday on the boat. It's been a strange season so far in terms of boating because it really hasn't been all that hot. Not Carolina hot anyway which means we've been enjoying cool mornings on the porch and cool evenings out there too. I do love me some porch sitting.

Wednesday we played tourist and drove over to Asheville to spend the day with the Vanderbilts. They weren't home but we let ourselves in and toured their house and gardens anyway.

An absolutely gorgeous home in a gorgeous setting not to be missed if you're in the area.

They had a fun display in the conservatory, a model train with tracks running in and out of the plantings, along with miniature models of the estate too. Let me just say their gardener knows what he's doing.

Our friends got on the road early Thursday so we did ordinary life stuff like visit the dentist (me), get a haircut (also me) and take a guitar lesson (definitely the hubs!).

Friday night we went over to a little place we like to eat on the lake and then because the sky was so pretty we took our time cruising home right along with the sun. Pay no attention to my boat hair.

Also, why doesn't my daughter have boat hair? 

Meanwhile...on the west coast my daughter1 and son-in-law celebrated his graduation from a 5-year orthopedic surgical residency and are busy loading up suitcases to make the trek south for a few weeks prior to their move. We absolutely could not be more proud of his drive, his diligence, his patience, and the fortitude he has displayed in getting to this day.

Our girl will be here tomorrow with the mancub to celebrate Father's Day with her father in person, and we're all just a little bit excited about that. The Dr. Captain will follow a bit later and will bring the dog with him, so no pup in the house just yet.

Other than the one already here I mean.

And oh yeah, tomorrow hubs and I mark 35 years as husband and wife.

This most recent year feels a lot like this post.-so.much.stuff. But there is grace for the day and for the year and for all the years and for that we are so very grateful.

Happy Anniversary hubs...you're still the one 💕

Keep Calm and Carry On

I've been away for the past week (was it really just a week???) so in the spirit of throwback Thursday I'm going back a whole seven days on the blog today.

Actually the beginning was a little over ten years ago, but let's start with last Thursday.

Y'all remember I lived in the UK for a chunk of time (six years, but who's counting?) and during that time we shared a lot of hours, meals, and laughter with several couples, and we eventually started traveling together too. Our first organized trip was a picture perfect getaway to the Champagne region of France back in 2009, and by organized I mean one highly capable woman in the group booked everything and we showed up for the fun.

You might not need all this background, but I feel the need to give it to you anyway so strap in.

The group decided to make this an annual thing, typically venturing to a wine region somewhere in the world and almost always these trips occurred during the month of May. If you've been reading here a while you know that quite often the month of May in recent years has seen us graduating and/or moving daughters from one dorm to storage unit to apartment to still another apartment, always in high heat and humidity, but I digress. Because of these big life events meant to be celebrated (and they were!) hubs and I didn't get to participate in every wine tour.

Last year we were moving from Point A to Point B to Point C ourselves, so our last gathering with this crowd was Portugal, 2014. Which was completely fabulous, but let's get back to present day. You should know that these friends are spread hither and yon, and since our time together in England have resided in France, Switzerland, Florida, Belguim, Michigan, Germany, Chicago, Washington D.C., China, and of course N.J.

N.J. was us, and we're now SC, but I think you get the idea. We've got some miles under our collective belts. Fast forward to 2016, and in a funny turn of events, one couple has landed in the Tar Heel State. By way of England and then China, but still...an hour and a half from our current cozy little home in a neighboring state, so whoohoo!

Best of all, they purchased the most charming Inn in the quaint town of Waynesville, NC and reserved a whole entire long weekend for all of us to move in and make ourselves at home.

So we did.

Beginning last Thursday when we piled in, unpacked, and enjoyed the first of too many wonderful meals. We ate dinner in town each night, but our gracious hosts prepared an amazing breakfast each morning.

Thank goodness there was some walking in the weekend. Those are lemon ricotta pancakes, and they're the lightest, airiest, pancakes I've ever tasted.

We spent all day Friday at the Biltmore House in nearby Asheville. Hubs and I had been there decades ago, but many in our group had never visited, and we all really enjoyed the day.

As it happens The Biltmore had 'wedding gowns in the movies' on display, so two or three gowns were set up in each room of the house, and that was really fun to see.

We might have made ourselves at home in the Vanderbilt's place too. These chairs in their conservatory definitely said come sit for a while.

Over the course of our four day stay, there were many meals and conversations, walks and talks, jigsaw puzzles completed, and maybe a little bit of singing too, because this group does love to sing.

Quite often when you're with a group of couples the women are the glue, but these boys are fast friends, and that's an extra special thing I think. One's not pictured here, but someone jumped in to save his spot.

Of course the weekend went way too fast and we're already making plans for next year so there's that.  I realized as I was writing this post some other thinky kind of thoughts were inspired by the weekend, but in the interest of 'brevity' I'll save them for a blog post all their own.

Actually I started to put them here, and they turned into something more than a closing paragraph so, next time.

After I rewrite them because when I went to cut and paste I managed to delete. Bother.

I don't talk about England too often on my blog anymore, but you should know there is a very tender spot in my heart for the years, memories, and especially the friendships made there. I had to go fix a cuppa while I sat here and pined for it just a little bit.

Not everybody gets that, but these people? They get it.