christmas

It's Christmas time in the mountains.  I know this because every radio station is playing Christmas carols.  I know this because it gets dark so early and many houses on my drive home are decked out in festive lights.  I know it's Christmas time because of the insane traffic around the mall and the long line of cars heading into the Biltmore House.

The Biltmore House is a wonderful place to get into the Christmas spirit.  When I am independently wealthy I am going to go to the Biltmore House every December for a day or two.  I will wander from room to room soaking up each decorated tree and downtown abby detail.  Years ago, I was given a year long pass to the Estate.  I decided to take my two little boys (still at a free age!) for a morning at Biltmore and began filling their minds with tales of the Christmas trees, gingerbread houses and the hot chocolate we would drink afterwards. 

Unfortunately the boys were at a "seen one tree, you've seen them all" phase in their little boyness.  By the third room they began a campaign to head to the super cool Starbucks we had passed right outside the Lodge Gate.  We saw the house at break neck speed and soon were burning our tongues on rich, hot chocolate.  Which is when the boys declared this to be a great morning out.

Part of my Biltmore nostalgia stems from the fact that those two little boys are growing up so fast!  But also because I am halfway through a book about the history and people of this grand estate.  I'm fascinated with the world traveling woman who fell in love with Asheville and the mountains and moved into Biltmore to make it a home.

"Edith Stuyvesant Dresser was a woman of strength and supreme self-confidence.  She was tall - nearly six feet -with prominent features, brown hair , and dark hazel eyes.  Edith was twenty-five, clearly independent and living in Paris with an older sister when she married George Vanderbilt, who was then thirty-five.  Though Edith was raise in New York and Newport with no knowledge of the southern Appalachian, she came to share her husband's appreciation of the North Carolina mountains and the people who lived there." Lady on the Hill, page 40

And just when I feel like my Christmas is getting too hectic and I can't drag myself into another store, Edith inspires again.

"Edith was friendly and approachable.  Every worker on the estate and members of their families saw her at least once a year at the traditional Christmas party when her husband distributed presents from under the Biltmore tree.  Preparations began in October, with Edith circulating among the farm families to update the names and ages of children so that each would have a gift.  Some years she personally selected more than fifteen hundred presents for employees, former employees, and their families; saw that they were wrapped; and stashed them safely in one of the tower rooms until Christmas Day." - Lady on the Hill, page 41

I love picturing the joy on those children's faces!  I don't have Edith's budget but I can hang on to her thoughtfulness, personalization and giving spirit as I head into this holiday season.

And in that spirit, here is a beautiful December prayer -

Christ of the Christmas Morning
Hope is one of your best gifts to us
So teach us to give it to others
---An Adapted Celtic Prayer