Thanksgiving 2019

The husband and I kicked off Thanksgiving week with a flight to Charlotte so we could hustle over to spend the holiday in Asheville with our Carolinas college girls. Our first couple days were spent at the historic Omni Grove Park Inn. As luck would have it, the week before it had hosted the annual National Gingerbread Competition, so we got to enjoy all of these amazing creations on display.

Some were structures, as seen above, but the ones below were a bit more fanciful. The one with the gator was the adult grand prize winner.

Below you'll see a sampling of other critters used in various scenes.

Gingerbread artists ranged in age from kindergarten to retirees. I was incredibly impressed by the range of skills, most of which I couldn't replicate for a million bucks. Here are some pics of other miscellaneous creations I really liked.

Y'all know how much I adore Santa! And I absolutely loved the Gypsy caravan below. The detail was truly amazing.

The inn was already decorated for Christmas. There were lots of decorated trees scattered everywhere. My favorite nibble was the (all) homemade pretzel with beer cheese fondue and spicy mustard honey butter at a casual restaurant on the premises - delicious!

I think my most memorable part of our stay there was when I snuggled up in a rocking chair in front of one of the monstrous fireplaces in the inn's huge entry/gathering area and just relaxed for about 30 minutes.