Wine & Tea

The epic Christmas catch-up continues, ha-ha! This will be the last post though, so the catch-up is complete! Yahoo! We had so many adventures crammed into the week of Christmas and after; each one was wonderful and fun! The Saturday after Christmas, Ryan and I joined my sister and James for a wine and cookie pairing at Bluemont Vineyards - definitely a unique experience! 

Bluemont Vineyards is so gorgeous - it's located on the side of the mountain with the grape vines running down the hills. The vines are lit at night and it's a pretty magical sight to see! Unfortunately, there was also crazy fog all afternoon and evening; also quite a sight to see, and so when they turned on the vines around 5:30 - it wasn't quite as spectacular as usual, ha-ha! It was still really beautiful though!

We sampled five wines and four cookies (the girl doing the tasting gave us an extra sample) and I have to say - I'm definitely more of a cookie girl than a wine girl! I know - what a shock, right? I sipped each of the wines and poured the leftovers into my sister's glass but I did eat every one of my cookies, ha-ha! After we'd finished our tasting, we made our way to the back deck where we had some hot cider and waited for the vines to be lit. Which was still beautiful - if a bit fuzzy because of the fog!

When our tasting was done, we made our way to Hunter's Head Tavern in Upperville - truly a great spot to check out if you're ever in the Northern Virginia area! The tavern is quite old and all the food is farm to table and delicious! While we have had some iffy service there from time to time, the food is always incredible - the chicken pot pie is the best I've ever had - and happily this visit was a good one! We all had delicious food and the company was good too; my parents joined us for dinner.

Sunday morning was a pretty lazy day; no church services took place on the Sunday following Christmas, so we enjoyed sleeping in. We made our way over to my parent's house after a quick visit to Costco (sadly - my favorite sweater was all sold out) en route! We joined my parents, Lindsey and James for Afternoon Tea at Rosemont Manor in Berryville. This is another delightful experience and I cannot recommend this enough either! The house is beautiful and the tea service is always fantastic!

The whole house was still beautifully decorated for Christmas, so we were able to take in all the twinkling lights and trees, which I loved! The Manor house is also a B&B and I'm sure a stay there is fantastic - not that I can speak on it, since I've only ever been to tea! It's a very popular wedding venue in Northern Virginia... Ryan and I looked into it as a venue but when we saw the prices, we went in another (perfect) direction! Even still - it's a beautiful place!

Please excuse the tons and tons of pictures that we took! It's not often that my Mom and Dad have both their daughters, their son-in-law and (hopefully) future son-in-law in town for a visit - so we have to take advantage, ha-ha! 

The final event of the Christmas week festivities was to go see the Christmas lights at Clearbrook Park! This lights are always so lovely and are in place for a full month or more... and they are also pretty close to Ryan and I's new home in West Virginia! A storm was forecasted to roll in right around the time we arrived - and it did - but thankfully it wasn't anything crazy. 

The rain started about halfway through our walk through the park, but it was only ever a light rain and we were able to put our hoods up and make our way to each of the pavilions spaced here and there throughout the park, while still taking in the sights! Now sure - it probably would have been a little bit nicer if it wasn't raining, but I fully believe that you make the best of the situation you're given - and so we did!

It was a great way to close out the visit with our family - I cannot believe it was only a few weeks ago! Time surely does fly and now we are looking ahead to enjoying this new year and all that it will hold!