Upon our first trip to Europe, I learned that it was customary to refer to your vacation as your holiday in the Old Country. Since that time it has been my custom to do so as I like the term better.

‘I think I am just about packed for Gatlinburg,’ Billy B. announced.

‘I remember our first visit to Cades Cove and reveling in the history that surrounds it,’ Neva J. replied.

‘This is my favorite time to visit…arriving the last hour of Christmas Eve and then enjoying a cup of hot cocoa as Christmas arrives,’ Jane smiled.

‘Do you ever feel that we have had this conversation before and that the next thing we are going to do is to step out onto the balcony and see the Smoky Mountains light up as if they were on fire…but it is winter…it is Christmas Eve and they are snow covered,’ Chet asked with a faraway look in his eyes?

Cades Cove was brilliantly decked out in it’s Holiday Splendor. Billy B. and Neva J. had been coming to the Cove for so many years that they had purchased a handcrafted model village of the historic buildings left in CC. Billy B.’s favorite was the Methodist Church with snow on the roof and the surrounding yard covered and a large Christmas Wreath above the welcoming front door.

‘I hope you did not forget the flasks of Moon Shine that I packed for us…you know that is my favorite part of Christmas Eve,’ Jonathon said with a hearty laugh!

‘My flask is the one labeled AB…it has just the plain Shine rather than the flavored stuff that you guys enjoy,’ Aaron said with a wink.

‘Every time I drink too much Shine I see the past,’ Uncle Brock said. Suddenly the Cades Cove settlers are here again and they are cutting wood for winter,’ he continued.

‘Greetings friends…are you here to go on the Cades Cove Hike,’ asked Reuben?

‘The path is totally grown over until it is almost dark…do you ever lose anyone on it,’ Neva J. asked with a smile as she tipped up her flask.

‘No madam…they just keep coming back,’ Reuben said slowly and with the care of a former time.

‘God help us…the bastards did it…they had to use them since they had them,’ Chet exclaimed as he and Billy B. looked out from their balcony at the Smoky Mountains…lit up with nuclear fire…