Asheville Christmas: What we did
Lets start with the ballet! I always LOVE going to see the Nutcracker at Christmas time so when Vinnie suggested it I was thrilled. Little did I know it would be the Moscow Ballet! The program was full of beautiful names like Ekaterina, Anatoly and Svetlana and the adorable children were supplied by the local school. We tried to have dinner at John and Vinnie’s favorite Italian restaurant but did not anticipate the crowd. The super friendly hostess was sympathetic and kept giving us plates of super fresh bruschetta but after 2 good bottles of Primitivo time forced us to get a super delicious pizza and eat it in the jeep on the way to the ballet. Now that’s what I call elegant???
The shop below is called Thyme in a Garden and I blogged about it in the Spring when I first visited Asheville. At Christmas time it is nothing short of magical. I knew I shouldn’t buy anything but naturally, there on the 40% shelf was this amazing ceramic bowl, already reasonably priced and a steal with the discount. How would I get it home? Who cared! I just had to have it! I would figure the rest out later!
We played games (well some of us). Scrabble is a Patson family tradition. My mom and dad were so good and knew all the tricks. Mom liked to bet money (who does that???) ‘cuz she knew she could win!
Vinnie baked cookies using the recipe from Martha Stewart and they turned out delicious!
I don’t recommend trying to find cookie cutters at the last moment as it was a bit of a scramble but Vinnie perserved and was successful! (I’m sure freehand would have been disastrous!)
We cruised all around downtown Asheville.
Should we have taken the Christmas Trolley? a charming option to a car!
We browsed the local book store (told John and Vinnie they would probably be in this calendar next year!)
Visited several Art Galleries (this by local artist Cornbread – love the name and the art!)
Shopped in the Five&Dime (could’ve gone crazy with all that nostalgic candy!!!)
Saw lots of beautiful nature (this is Beaver Lake but the major body of water in Asheville is the French Broad River).
Including what will probably amount to 1000′s of fallen pine limbs (due to heavy snowfall on their branches)
BTW, this is one of many in John and Vinnie’s front yard! Looks like they’ve got their work cut out for them!
Couldn’t miss the neighborhood flock of turkeys.
And can you believe it, we even spent a good deal of time relaxing….!
Although relaxing is not really in our nature with so many fun Holiday activities to do, it certainly helps when you have 3 wiener dogs (the 3rd one is behind me) and 1 cat sitting on you! Sometimes the critters just know how to calm you down!
