Christmas in the South

This is how you dress to take a Christmas walk in the south. It was a beautiful day. Erin was so happy to get out of Chicago. She was one of the lucky few to make it out of O'Hare alive on the 23rd. There were 500 flights cancelled and people were stuck at the airport possibly until Christmas Day. Erin made it as far as Detroit and spent the night with Dan & Susan then caught a flight in the morning to Greenville, SC. Amy & Cheri picked her up from the airport and delivered her to our door. It was truly a Christmas Miracle! Then the girls came back for Christmas dinner. We took them to our waterfalls and showed them around Creston before dinner.

The thermometer is outside our kitchen window. It really wasn't THAT warm. The sun was beating on it.

Love the Rain

Today it is rainy & foggy for the 3rd straight day. That's OK because Western North Carolina is still under extreme drought conditions. I don't think it's rained 3 consecutive days since we've moved here (to NC.) Tuesday and yesterday it was interesting watching the fog move in and out. Everytime I looked out the window it was different. I took these pictures yesterday from the upstairs balcony within a short period of time. Today it's just been pouring with pea soup fog that hasn't changed a bit. It's been like this since last night. I came home from town at about 8:30 pm and as soon as I got within a mile or two of home I hit fog and crawled all the way home. Sometimes it's just foggy on our mountain and clear all the way into town.

It's Curtains for Us

Now that the leaves are gone we have views from every direction and can see some of the roads within Creston. One day I realized that if we can see the roads from here I bet you can see our house from the roads! I drove down to a road that we can see and looked up and sure enough, there was our house. In the summer you can't see it through the trees but now you get a clear shot. When houses start going in on that lower road we'll have to think about window treatments.

Thar She Blows!

The day after our turkey dinner we all had to get out of the house even though it was cold & rainy. We decided to try to find Andrews Geyser. I had read about it and had seen signs along the road near Old Fort. The geyser is over 100 years old and the railroad tracks make a loop around it. It used to welcome visitors to the Swannanoa Valley. The geyser is now controlled by the owner of a nearby inn and was not turned on. It is supposed to shoot 30 feet into the air when it is. According to the book, if you can time it to be at the geyser at the same time the train goes by it's a real treat because you can see the train coming and going at the same time and can imagine what people saw from the train as they entered the area. I'll have to do some research to see if we can do that sometime. The geyser shoots up from the center of the lake. You can see how large the lake is compared to the people around it.

Thanksgiving Pix

Well, I am very late at posting my Thanksgiving pictures but maybe it's because I hardly took any. Probably because while everyone else was having fun posing and snapping away, I was slaving over a hot stove. I pulled a special chef in to make the gravy. He also does Yoga while he's cooking.

Dancing With the Stars

Watching the Finale.

Hendry Visit

More of the Chimney Rock hike.

Hendry Visit

Dave & Yvonne went shopping one day so we took Sarah & Emily to Chimney Rock. After climbing up on the rock and visiting the gift shop we went on a hike. There was a wildlife trail for kids with stopping points along the way featuring different wildlife. We all enjoyed the hike.

Hendry Visit

The girls managed to pose with a giant garden gnome.

We went to Brevard and Looking Glass Falls one day. Another day we went up to Grandfather Mountain. It was cold & snowy up there. The mile-high swinging bridge was closed and the bears weren't out.

Hendry Visit

Two weeks ago, we were visited by a lot of Hendrys. First, Nick (#3 son) and (girlfriend) Caylee arrived from Toronto. The next day Dave (#2 son), Yvonne, Sarah and Emily came in from Norway. We had an early birthday party for Grandpa since they won't be here for it. The girls decorated the cake.