Woods’ house

The Woods’ home on the lake becomes a fine place in which to create memories ... and launch new trips

Story and local photos by David Moore

For most people, Christmas is a time to create memories – ideally, good, fun memories.

For most people, travel around the country or abroad is a time to create memories – ditto about good, fun ones.

Nicholas and Mary Beth Wood consciously combined these two memory-creating sources into one – not only making it a point to purchase Christmas ornaments when they travel, but planning trips expressly for that purpose.

“We’ve always bought Christmas ornaments when we travel,” Mary Beth says.

Forward thinking, even on their honeymoon trip to Iceland in 2016, the Guntersville couple – who lived in Texas at the time – made it a point to buy Christmas ornaments. Then, two years later, the first week of that December, they took an eight-day trip on the Danube River with Crystal Cruises, specifically designed to visit Christmas markets in seven cities from Vienna, Austria to Budapest, Hungary. Everywhere was decorated for the holidays.

“We made a point to stop at certain Christmas markets,” says Mary Beth, initiating the idea. But, she adds, it was an easy sale. “He had wanted to go on a cruise like that.”

“I really liked the Czech Republic the most,” she adds. “It felt more authentic, more like the Old World.” Nicholas thought Budapest was the most beautiful portof-call.

Adding tremendously to those memories, Charlotte, their oldest daughter, then 15 months old, made the Christmas cruise with them.

“We were lucky to be able to take her,” Mary Beth says. “They were picky about taking children but made an exception for a baby. She was the only one aboard. She made friends with everyone on the boat.”

“She did amazingly well,” Mom adds. “We took her to a five-star Michelin restaurant, and she ordered the most expensive thing on the menu.”

Actually, Mary Beth ordered it for her – fish because it would be easy for her to chew. Charlotte cleaned her plate.

Long before the Woods began creating family memories, Mary Beth grew up in Albertville, the only child of Dan and Jean Taylor. She graduated from high school there in 2006 and headed off to Auburn University.

“I started in international business with a minor in French,” she laughs. “I took my first French class and said, ‘No way.’”

She liked computers so instead graduated in 2009 with a degree in management information systems. That landed her a job with Northrop Grumman in Dallas, where she moved the same year.

Friends Mary Beth made through the Dallas Auburn Club invited her to a house party that September hosted

Christmas 2021 found the Woods posing in front of their living room fireplace. From left are: Mary Beth, Goldie, about 4 months old at the time, Charlotte, giving Gertie a little love, Fritz and Nicholas. The 11-foot tree in the living room sports many ornaments from the family’s travels. The photos at left are a few shots taken in Vienna, Austria, early in the Woods’ 2018 Christmas market cruise on the Danube River, including their first meal aboard the boat and two market scenes. At the immediate left is one of the trees decorating the Crystal Cruises river boat.

by some whiz kid named Nicholas Wood. It might not have been love at first sight, but it didn’t take long. By December they were dating.

Son of Bill and Joni Wood, Nicholas graduated in 2002 as salutatorian and class president from Abilene High School. Four years later he graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in finance and business honors.

Since college, he’s bought and sold three oil- and energy-related companies. And since earlier this year, he’s been a divisional vice president for Innovex, which provides oilfield services and manufactures equipment for onshore and offshore operators worldwide.

“He has,” says Mary Beth, “always been well accomplished and highly motivated.”

For her part, she worked in Dallas as a business intelligence specialist for WCI Consulting until around the time Charlotte was born in September 2017. Since then, she’s been a full-time mom and more.

“She’s an amazing mother and life partner,” Nicholas says. “She’s always been right beside me in my passion projects.”

It was Mary Beth who championed the idea of reattaching to her Marshall County roots. But initially their plans were for a second home here. As it worked out, Stoney Mountain Golf Course on Georgia Mountain had closed and was up for sale. They bought it in 2018 with the idea of building a house and calling it Barefoot Farm because, as Nicholas says, the fairways and green were great for barefooting.

For grounds maintenance, he ordered a specialty mower from New Zealand with a 26-foot cutting radius. Even so, it was no match for that unusually rainy summer.

“I was mowing on 120 acres, sometimes twice a week,” he laughs.

Though from Texas, Tricia Lowenfield makes whimsical, European-style decorations, including this Nativity, top, the Woods bought on a trip out West. Goldie and Fritz lie beneath a tree with kid decorations on it. The Woods’ deep backyard, at left, stretches to their boathouse.

Clockwise from upper left: The Woods bought this sweater decoration on their honeymoon in Iceland; their friend Abbey Hall of Huntsville painted this decoration of Edson Hill in Stowe, Vermont, where the Woods were married; Willoughby & Co. did the greenery and garlands in the dining room, stairwell and elsewhere; while Nicholas put up the trees, Mary Beth and the kids did the other decorations, such as the Austrian Santa; Charlotte decorated the dollhouse – with the mouse in the tub – which is in her bedroom. All of the kids have their own Christmas tree in their bedroom.

“Grass doesn’t grow that fast in Texas.”

So they sold the property on Georgia Mountain. But, like Mary Beth, Nicholas had heard the siren’s song of this area.

“The lake is a big part of it – and being close to her parents,” he says. “Dallas was a huge city, and that was not a good place to raise kids.”

That August they sold their house in Dallas. In November they bought and remodeled a 4-year-old house on Spring Creek in a new neighborhood behind Guntersville High. It was a fine place to create memories … a fine place to raise a family, a fine place from which to plan travels, a fine place to celebrate Christmas.

“It was once featured in the Lady Civitans Holiday Tour of Homes,” Mary Beth says. “I guess it’s always been a Christmas house.”

Even as all of that was unfolding, they laid plans for their Danube River cruise.

“We were in the car going to Birmingham and talking about a river cruise,” Mary Beth recalls. “So we googled it. It was kind of spur of the moment.”

And so the memories came as the Woods’ life unscrolled in Guntersville. Fritz was born in January 2020, Goldie in August 2021.

“The kids play outside and on our back porch,” Mary Beth says. On Saturdays Nicholas enjoys buckling lifejackets on the kids, cranking his ‘52 Chris Craft runabout, tooling down Spring Creek, tying up at the Publix dock and buying donuts.

“I like the view of the lake and our backyard,” Mary Beth adds. “It’s originally why we bought the house.”

She loves planning big birthday parties for the kids. Organizing activities such as cookie day. Christmas, of course, is big doings too. They attend First Baptist Church. Charlotte plays soccer. And their home has proven a good base from which Mary Beth can devise vacations.

“She’s the vacation planner – and photographer,” Nicholas says. “She makes life special for me and our children.”

Making memories would be another way of putting it.

Good Life Magazine

Nicholas with his “passion project.” Look up “1936 Ryan-ST Ferry” on YouTube to see its flight to Alabama. Nicholas Wood proudly owns the “holy grail” of Ryan STs

One of Nicholas Wood’s “passion projects” is the one-of-a-kind airplane he purchased in 2021 – a 1936 Ryan ST.

Famous for building Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, Ryan Aeronautical went on to produce several lines of the aluminum covered, singlewing, two-seater Sports Trainers, the first five of which had a 95-HP engine. Later, Ryan produced similar planes as Army Air Corps trainers, but Nicholas’ is the only survivor of the original five.

The STs made glamorous props for photos of the Hollywood elite in the late ’30s. Lindbergh and other golden-age pilots test-flew them. Howard Hughes allegedly used Nicholas’ plane to fly a Hollywood starlet across Southern California to dinner.

“The plane has so much amazing history,” Nicholas says. “I want to be a good steward, exhibiting it and preserving it for future generations to enjoy.”

Passionate about flying, Nicholas had long sought to find an existing military ST worth restoration. Helping in his quest was Doug Smith, a mechanic for famed aeronautics engineer Ted Teach, who owned the “holy grail” of STs, the sole survivor of the initial five.

Near the end of his life, Teach decided to sell the 1936 ST. Smith contacted Nicholas and said it was his only chance, otherwise it’d likely be sold to the Smithsonian or another significant museum collection. He bought it and had it flown to Guntersville Municipal Airport.

“We’re building a new hangar there that will be a worthy place to keep it,” says Nicholas, who gave up flying when he and Mary Beth started their family.

“My goal is to get in the back seat and fly it in 2036 – that will be its centennial.” He laughs and adds, “I may get Mary Beth to ride in the front seat.”

“I,” replies Mary Beth, “don’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket.” – David Moore