Happy Belated Birthday to My Beloved!

I treated Michael to a night at the wonderful Inn at Middleton Place just down the road from us. The modern design beautifully counters the 18th-century buildings and landscaping of Middleton Place next door. Last weekend also played host the the Grand Illumination - Christmas 1782 Tour. It was perfect timing as I found the tour information while booking our room!


Loving the brrrrrr chilly December weather in the courtyard in front of our room!

I picked up Michael's cake from Normandy Farms and drove it, along with some of our absinthiana, out to the Inn on Friday. I requested to have the fountain, glasses, absinthe, ice and water set up in the room upon our arrival and the cake to be delivered to the room while we were out on the tour. We woke up Saturday morning to the sound of pouring rain and my heart sank. I had no idea if the events of the evening were rain or shine. I decided to follow the flow of the day/evening without panic. I gleefully learned at check-in that the event was going on as scheduled. We brought our umbrellas and learned that the rooms are supplied with those AND flashlights for walking the grounds at night.

We had a fantastic time during the tour. We actually ended up on the tail end of an earlier group when we got to the house. It wasn't until we finished our supper {the food was delicious} that we learned that we'd missed half the tour! Silly us, we thought that maybe the gardens portion was cut short because of the weather. We all had a good laugh and Michael and I joined a small group heading toward the gardens. We had several good laughs at ourselves for the rest of the evening.