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Page 14 · column 3 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
Christmas dinner was served at 3 p.m., and what a feast it was with Virginia ham, roast pork, beef, fish, duck, turkey and oysters. In the candlelight, George Washington rose to offer a toast: “All our friends.”
A niece spending the holiday at Mount Vernon wrote of the time in a letter:
“I must tell you what a charming day I spent at Mount Vernon with Mama and Sally. The Gen’l and Madame came home on Christmas Eve, and such a racket the Servants made! They were glad of their coming. Three handsome young officers came with them.
“All Christmas afternoon people came to pay their Respects and Duty. Among them were Stately Dames and gay young Women. The Gen’l seemed very happy and Mistress Washington was from Daybrake making everything agreeable as possible for Everybody.”
It must have taken Martha “from Daybrake” to supervise the Christmas feasts for which Mount Vernon was famous. Her “great cake” alone required labor from dawn to dusk in those days when all mixing and beating was done by hand:
“Take 40 eggs & divide the whites from the yolks & beat them
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