My Foggy, Mountainous, Hollywild Christmas

Many of us have Christmas adventures, and I had a few during Christmas 2008 that I'd like to share with you.

My wife and I decided to take in as many Christmas events (lights, etc.) as we could this holiday.

Our first trip was to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, and it was a great choice. The lights scattered in the trees were beautiful, as was the giant wreath on the silo next to the barn-shaped building that is the actual library. We also took the library tour. The BGL is a peaceful, inspiring place to visit; you come away with new appreciation of the lifetime of work Billy Graham has performed in the name of God.

There was one big problem for us that night: the drive home in unbelievable fog along Interstate 85. The trip was tense, and I couldn't let down my guard behind the wheel for even an instant. Thank God, we made it home just fine.

The next day, after a fine lunch at Asheville's scenic Grove Park Inn, we took our annual Christmas tour of the Biltmore House. It didn't seem as extravagently decorated this time, but it was still magnificent and beautiful. The Vanderbilts' Christmases must've been amazing.

The following Sunday, carolers from a local church visited our neighborhood and came to our front door. I didn't know they were there until one of my dogs went nuts barking. We opened the door, and there were 30 or so singers! They were great, sang a couple of songs for us, even offered to take requests.

Our two daughters joined us the next night for a trip to the Christmas Safari at Hollywild Zoo near Inman. The lines of cars were unbelievable; it probably took 30 minutes just to get into the complex and buy tickets. The lights strewn around the trees were pretty; I must admit I was disappointed that some of the Christmas cartoon characters had fallen over or were maintained poorly. Our drive into the deer park was certainly a wild scene... cars going everywhere, people trying to feed bags of pellets to animals who were probably about to pop from eating so much (the ground was literally white from the amount of food visitors had bought and tossed from their cars, hoping to draw the animals near). Though it was a terribly cold night, we stopped at Santa's Village to pet animals and snap pictures, which was a lot of fun. We also enjoyed the Bible scene paintings along the road as we finished our visit.

We went to the Christmas Eve 11 pm service at our church. It included communion, beautiful singing and a touching candlelight ending.

Christmas Day was spent with family, and after opening gifts, we went to the movies ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was a great movie and a lot of movie for your money... 2 hours and 40 minutes long).

Our Christmas celebration ended with a visit from my parents. My folks are up in years, and my dad hasn't been well lately, so it was especially great for them to drive down.

A terrific Christmas!

I hope your holidays were terrific too. Please e-mail me any special adventures you'd like to share!