Winter White

The day after Christmas the snows came! The grounds around the inn now look properly wintery.

It was also quite blustery, putting the wind chill temps at -7, so I only ventured out as far as the front porch to take picture of our first snow.







There was a 2 foot snow drift in front of the kitchen door. Note that our Halloween pumpkin is quite frozen, which is why it still looks good at this late date.



We even got a good layer of snow on the second floor porch on the main inn.

Christmas Sunrise

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family, and to everyone who has been our guest at the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn.



We wish you a happy and prosperous New Year and hope to see you at the Inn!

Christmas Eve Tradition

In my family it is tradition to wait until Christmas Eve to decorate the tree. Christmas Eve is all about decorating the tree with family and eating holiday treats!

My mom use to make a "normal" Christmas Eve dinner, but everyone would be so stuffed with cookies and ring-a-lings (a frosted raisin and cinnamon roll) that we hardly ever ate dinner.

So last night Mark and I decorated the tree.

It started with bringing in the tree. You can see that we have only a dusting of snow and the sun is brightly shining, but at least it is cold enough to feel like Christmas.



The first step in the decorating is putting on the lights. When I was little, I started out as a "light hanging assistant" with my Dad, then later with my older brother, but then it wasn't long until I was light hanging "master" - or the only one left happy to do this task!



Now it is completely left up to me. Everyone thinks that hanging the ornaments is more fun, but I love sparkling lights. We now use the new energy-efficient LCD light strings and they are great!

The finished tree! We have a very eclectic collection of ornaments - some purchased and some handmade.



Because we put the tree up so late, we also traditionally keep it up until around January 16th (my brother's birthday). So you have plenty of time to stop for a visit or a stay at the inn while the tree is on display in the front dinning room.

Our chocolate shop, Life By Chocolates, will also have all of the Christmas chocolates on sale -- making a visit even sweeter!

The Newest Wee Forest Folk

We are very happy to carry Wee Forest Folk in our gift shop at the inn. These are addictively collectable little mouse figures! I started collecting them myself in the 1980's.

We have all of the new Christmas figures available for sale and just received the specially designed piece by the founder of Wee Forest Folk - Annette Petersen, who is still design at the age of 91 years young.





It is called "The Elegant Hostess" (M-423).

Thanksgiving at the Greenville Arms

While we don't serve a Thanksgiving dinner to guests (they are usually staying with us while visiting family), Mark and I always enjoy making our traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

It was just the two of us this year, so the menu was limited to just our favorites. We started out with roasted chestnuts and a wonderful, buttery and earthy Saint Agur, a blue cheese made from pasteurized cow's milk from the village of Beauzac in the Monts du Velay, part of the mountainous Auvergne region of central France.



Paired with this was a luscious 1984 Domaine De Caplane sauternes.



Then came the main event - an organic free-range turkey with stuffing! The turkey was set in a Maple-Soy-Ginger brine the day before, and then stuffed and roasted. The stuffing was a bread (I use chewy-crusted baguettes), sausage, pine nut, mushroom, celery, onion, and parsley mix.)

I carve the turkey while Mark makes the gravy.



Just enough not to feel as stuffed as the turkey at the end!