Yuletide at Wheatland

My mom, sister and I spent part of today on a Yuletide tour of Wheatland - the home of our 15th president, James Buchanan. We started out this morning amidst flurries of snow, fortified with Christmas cookies. When we reached the pretty estate, we were given a tour of the decorated home by various members of the household. It was 1861 and the servants were in the process of "preparing for a Christmas party and overnight guests." We met a Civil War soldier who was keeping an eye out for "rebel" soldiers; a Civil War Santa whose unique look came into being during the War; various servants preparing the home for the Yuletide celebration; and Harriet Lane, the niece and "First Lady" of our only bachelor president. After our tour we visited the greens sale that was being held out on the lawn by a local garden club - my sister bought several bunches of beautiful holly and boxwood, branches of spruce and lovely red dogwood branches to decorate her home. (While we toured and shopped for greens, a local news reporter kept snapping our pictures for the Sunday News. We felt like we had our own personal paparazzi!) We drove down the road then for a warming lunch of soup, sandwiches and hot tea at a little pharmacy before heading home through the snow.