For Christmas Mallory and Clara got tickets to go with Lindee and me to see “School of Rock,” one of our Broadway Lights series in Charlotte.  The kids in that show were incredibly talented – wow.

The wreaths on the doors heading into the conservatory were beautiful, too.  Every set of doors had a different kind of wreathes on them, but all were made out of natural materials – so pretty.

We enjoyed the Legacy Museum, where the display was still on exhibit that Jeff and I saw when we were there eighteen months ago – the weddings of the Vanderbilts. One of Cornelia Vanderbilts sons married Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s cousin, and both she and Jackie wore the same family wedding veil. It was on display there – it was so pretty.

Saturday morning we headed back to the Biltmore Estate, and our first stop was at the Conservatory.  We were glad to be in from out in the cold!  The plants and flowers in the conservatory were as beautiful as always, although there was more of a Christmas theme to them, of course.  I loved this tree they had made!

We had lunch reservations at Cedric’s Tavern at Antler Hill Village, and on our way over we were stunned to see that the river – I think it’s the French Broad River – had frozen completely over. I mean, it was like it had frozen while waves were blowing. It was crazy! We did get out in the cold long enough to make some pictures 🙂

Friday evening Lindee, Mallory, Clara, Emma, and I headed back to Asheville, to take in The Biltmore House while it was still decorated for Christmas.  This was the hallway at the entrance.  Absolutely gorgeous.

One thing I especially enjoyed as we walked through the house was noticing the decorations in just every single corner. In the salon, the lamps were decorated like this – in other areas they had other sorts of decorations. Just so pretty.

The three story chandelier at the grand staircase. It’s always pretty jaw-dropping, but decorated for Christmas it was especially lovely.

Today we had our final Christmas break outing, when Charlie, June, Adam, Mason, and I headed to Cherryville, to visit the Carolina Freight Museum.  I have wanted to go since I first heard about it years ago, and it really was fun.  It wasn’t real big, but the kids seemed to enjoy it, too.  We were especially excited to hear that Carolina Freight was one of the main haulers when they started building the NASA station at Cape Canaveral, since that’s where we’re going on vacation in just a few months 🙂

The man was very nice who was volunteering there today, and didn’t bug us, but checked on us a couple of times to see if we had any questions or needed any help. He had the kids look and see how many bulldogs they could find in the truck display, since the modern era trucks were all built by Mack Truck. And they found them all 🙂

June and Mason had asked if we could go to the Museum of York County for one of our Christmas Break outings, so yesterday was the day.  They were tearing down the traveling exhibits that had been there since last summer, and we weren’t there at the right time for a planetarium show, but we enjoyed the regular permanent exhibits as we always do.  The lady in the naturalist center came and reminded them to use the back of their hands to pet the pelts, and they did a good job with that.

We had a fun, low key day when all the kids were here Tuesday.  It had been a while since all six had been here together, and they always love those days.  So do I.  We spent part of the morning putting together a couple of huge pots of soup – enough for supper, to send home with everyone for supper, to freeze some, and to have for lunch yesterday.  Here is Clara opening a can of tomatoes to throw in.  I think Adam and Mason are playing with some garlic powder that got spilled on the table 🙂

I didn’t think they would, but they all went outside more than once over the course of the day. It was just so, so cold. They always loved a treat of hot chocolate every time they came inside, though 🙂

Even though neither of us really felt like it, on New Year’s Day Jeff and I powered through and got all the Christmas decorations packed up and put away.  Here is our crowd of critters waiting to go up in the attic for another year 🙂

Saturday night both Liz and Lesley were in York County, so we gathered here at the house for a celebratory supper.  Front row are Adam, June, Clara, Mal, and Charlie.  In back are me, Amy, Boo standing on the chair, Jeff, Lindee, Liz, Jenny, Leesy, Addie, Lesley, and Andrew.  So special.

Our girls. I loved spending time with them, and seeing them spend time with each other.