December 17th through 19th  Christmas Event #7

We had a pre-Christmas get away to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC.   This place is just beautiful!  It's in the mountains and really removed from the hustle and bustle of everyday life

This is the main hall, dining rooms, bars, shops, etc.with a very large heated porch across the entire front.

Looking down on the underground spa...

The spa hot tub...

The fire pit at the Spa...

Going on inside was the National Gingerbread House Competition, 20th Anniversary.  Amazing displays...

All of the entries have to be completely edible.

There were 38 fully decorated trees throughout the Inn.

Delicious hot chocolate on the heated outside porch,

while enjoying a beautiful sunset.

Beautiful and warm fireplaces inside with rocking chairs (my favorite!)

This was on the outside porch and many people took their pictures in the sled.

One of the larger Christmas trees

A wonderful get away; I would highly recommend this!  Now, we're off to the Biltmore, also located in Asheville, NC.

December 16th

Christmas Event #6 took us to a nearby town called McAdenville, which is also known as Christmas Town USA.  The entire town (yes, the entire town) is covered in red, green and white lights.  My pictures don't even begin to capture what it really looks like.

This Christmas light tradition began 58 years ago and has grown ever since.  The town (less than 700 residents) puts up over 500,000 lights and the majority of the towns people decorate their houses, too.

Almost every evergreen tree is covered with red, green and sparkling white lights.

The windows in the elementary school are all painted and even the air conditioners are "wrapped" to look like packages.

December 14th

Christmas Event #5 took us back to Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens to see the lights at night.  We had been there at Thanksgiving with all of our family, but wanted to go back and see the lights later at night.  This is such a beautiful garden and so close to our home.

Waiting outside

Getting closer...

The beautiful front entrance...

A Christmas tree made completely out of orchids grown in their green house

One of their fountains...

This was the grandsons' favorite when they were here; it's a fountain that sprays water over the walkway and you run under it and try not to get wet!


Another very pleasant evening.

December 13th

Christmas Event #4 took us to T-Bones which is a restaurant on Lake Wylie.  It was their annual Holiday Boat Parade.  I took these pictures with my phone so the quality isn't the best, but it was a fun time.  They had music, food, hot chocolate for sale as well as several fire pits to keep warm.

T-Bones decked out for Christmas.

This one had hundreds of lights synchronized with music! 

Hard to tell, but this one had a large boat towing a kayak with two blown up duckies wearing Santa hats--this one was a crowd favorite.

There were probably about 20 very decorated boats in this parade.  Lots of fun to watch.

December 11th

Tonight Christmas Event #3 took us to Concord, NC for a drive around NASCAR'S Lowes Motor Speedway--(Hey, it makes David happy; what can I say!)

And so we begin...

Pictures taken while driving, sorry!

Fun to drive through

And then, in the garage area were vendors with all kinds of "goods" for sale and of course, food!

Have you ever heard of this?  And "no", we didn't try one.

Samples of various funnel cakes proudly displayed!

Notice the decorations on this Christmas tree by ZMAX!!!

A fun experience!

December 5th

Thought you would enjoy seeing some of our Christmas decorations in our new home...

Our front door...

With all of the trimmings...

Our back deck tree

Then our Christmas adventure #2 was a concert the the Basilica at Belmont Abbey College.

Their beautiful pipe organ

The altar

This instrument was like a miniature pipe organ and sounded so beautiful.

A very nice evening of beautiful music by students at Belmont Abbey.

December 2nd

David and I have decided to go to as many local holiday traditions as possible this Christmas .  This is our first one.

Christmas Parade in our new hometown--Belmont.  This is an annual event and was surprised to hear that it was going to last an hour.  Besides the parade, they had vendors up and down the streets selling popcorn, peanuts, cotton candy and the like.  Pretty good for a town of a little over 10,000 residents.  Holiday spirit was everywhere!!!

And the parade begins...

Even the local orthodontist has a float!!!

Tony's is great homemade ice cream,  by the way!

Advertising the Christmas display at Charlotte Speedway.

And finally, Santa wraps up the parade.