Biltmore at Christmastime

I'll be the first to tell you that it is not yet the Christmas season, but bear with me on this one.  As the Biltmore Estate in Asheville is one of our favorite places, we have always wanted to see the Christmas decorations there.  But who has time for extra travel in December? 

Thankfully, the Christmas festivities begin at the Biltmore in early November, so we were able to squeeze in a trip over the weekend.  We already had our tickets (an awesome gift from my sister), so we just packed a bag and headed out. 

This bag, actually.  I finished sewing it on Thursday evening, just in time.  It is practically perfect in every way for a weekend trip. 

We got lucky with the weather, which was fairly cool on Friday but lovely on Saturday.  We walked for hours around the estate, checking out the leaves and berries and hardly missing the usual flowers at all. 

We took tons of pictures and ate great food.  I wore my red coat and felt fancy the whole time. 

Saturday evening, we got to tour the house at night.  There were trees in almost every room and fires in all of the 47 fireplaces.  We especially loved the choir singing in the atrium and the real spruce in the dining room that must have been 30 feet tall and smelled amazing. 

It definitely felt magical, being there at night.  I have a real love for Christmas lights on outdoor trees and at one point I told Steve that it felt like we were about to get engaged.  But we're already married, which is obviously way better. 

We came home yesterday feeling like we had taken a real break from all our responsibilities for two whole days.  Which was exactly what we needed. 

Don't worry though- everything was still waiting for us when we got home.  But today I have worked down my to-do list until it doesn't look so large and scary and I feel like I can tackle the week ahead. 

I'm working on six scarves this afternoon and hoping my weekend companion gets home on time so that we can have some more fun. 

Tomorrow, I'm making soup!  I'll be sharing the recipe in case you want to make some too!