The Biltmore

We topped our journey off in Asheville, North Carolina with a New Year’s Eve candlelight tour of George Vanderbilt’s country home—the Biltmore.

This darling little cottage in the hills has 250 rooms and over 4 acres of floorspace!

It was first opened on Christmas Eve 1895 and has been open to the public since 1930.

There are 43 bathrooms. Amazing. Especially when you consider practically no one had indoor plumbing when this place was built. There’s even an indoor swimming pool and bowling alley.

They won’t let you take pictures inside the house. Booo. But we made sure to take as many as we could outside.




I just love all of the gargoyles and statuary.



George Vanderbilt's Asheville estate was at one time over 125,000 acres. This consisted of the mansion, farms, gardens and woodlands. Today, only 8,000 of the original remain in the Vanderbilt family.

Along with the house, there is a working vineyard and winery, two inns, and a farm village. You can still visit the gardens, originally designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed New York’s Central Park.




It was a beautiful way to end 2005 and begin 2006.


Happy New Year!

Oh, you'd better watch out...

Everyone knows Santa is an extremely busy man on Christmas Eve.

Imagine our surprise, then, when we received a personal visit from the jolly man AND the Mrs., only hours before he was to begin his annual world-wide overnight toy/coal distribution.

Don't believe it? Just ask my nieces-- they were there-- and saw the whole thing!

And for THIS I do have photographic proof:




Amazing, isn't it?






And I'm sure you're dying to know about the eight tiny reindeer too.

Well, unfortunately, Prancer was out sick this year with a nasty bug, and Santa had to make a last minute replacement.

I am proud to have the exclusive scoop and to unveil the identity of the fill-in right here on my blog!

Drum roll please....

I hope you can handle this....

Here he is.....




Dumpy the web-toed reindeer!

A Few Particulars

So if I sounded a little crabby in my last post, it was simply exhaustion from the road and not because of anything that happened while on the trip. It was a great time. I tried to take as many pictures as possible of the places and things, to help remember, but the greatest gifts were relational and those moments I couldn't catch with my camera.
Like hearing my father say "Merry Christmas".
When the doctors told me to say my goodbyes back on November 11th-- Veteran's Day-- I thought for sure it was the last holiday we would see together. I thought it fitting that a man so dedicated to his country, a veteran himself, would pass on a day honoring those like him who have passed on before.
But it wasn't to be.
I mean everyone at the hospital was so positive that he was in his last hours. He had started the "death rattle", they said, a sure sign of the end. Completely unresponsive. The Red Cross flew my Sister-in-Law in from Iraq on emergency leave to be with the rest of the family during this time. They had moved Dad to a private room and made sure we knew exactly who to call when the final moment came.
My prayers for him during this time were always for comfort and a peaceful transition-- an end to his pain. My prayers for miraculous healing or recovery seemed cruel.
Which is why standing next to his bed at Christmas and hearing him say "I love you" and having him gently kiss my hand was the most precious and unexpected gift of all.
God's ways and His timing are perfect. I am continually baffled at how poor I am at guessing what He's up to sometimes. I am just thankful for this opportunity and for this-- the second-greatest Christmas gift He's ever given me.

To Texas and Back

We survived the holidays!

What an amazing trip. Approximately 4000 miles in ten days.

We saw family, friends and about a thousand Cracker Barrels.

Temperatures ranged from freezing to the high 80's. It rained the whole way through Louisiana, while Texas was so dry and the skies filled with smoke from the numerous wildfires throughout the state.

We drank Cheerwine in the Carolinas and Dublin Dr. Pepper (made with real cane sugar)-- straight from the original bottling company-- in Texas.

It was great to get back and see everyone, but, with such a tight schedule, many people got shafted. I hate that I wasn't able to spend more time with my great friends in Texas. I guess that means that everyone needs to come to DC! ;)

Because, there is no way I'm driving ANYWHERE for a while!