home of distinction “It’s my favorite holiday, always was,” she says. P Perhaps it was losing her mother when she was 18 that inspires her to recreate the holiday for loved ones each year. “I do remember our last Christmas and I always try to say, ‘Make every day special. Enjoy your holiday because we’re not promised another one.’ I lost my father at a young age too,” she says. Carrying forth her mother’s love of the holiday, she has amassed a collection one friend suggests rivals the décor at the Biltmore Estate. “The tree is always the special thing that we love the most. My daughter, her dad and I … have a tradition of going to get the tree. We love the Fraser firs and have to go look at all the lots,” she says. “My daughter wanted to have a large tree. This has been the most spectacular tree we have ever had.” Each ornament stirs a memory: a first wedding anniversary gift from her mother-in-law, her husband’s love of Airstream travel trailers, her daughter’s handprint from First Presbyterian preschool. “I love things with dates on it. Everything has a story. I like these horsey Christmas things. I like to collect those,” she says. “I’m such an avid collector; I like to collect so many different things!” Nativity figures represent the birth of Jesus, above. A striking Fraser fir glitters with treasured ornaments that stir memories of Christmases past. 60 WBM december 2014
December 2104
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