1. (noun) spiced ale or mulled wine drunk during celebrations for Twelfth Night and Christmas Eve.  
2. (verb) drink plentiful amounts of alcohol and enjoy oneself with others in a noisy, lively way.
3. (verb) go from house to house at Christmas singing carols.
   “here we go a-wassailing”

How have I never heard of this word?!  Anyway, it’s a perfect description of the festive event… This was the first time we’ve been to Wassail Weekend.  Never knew how big of an event it actually was and the whole family had an awesome time! The big event centers around the Parade – which is on Saturday and features about 50 horses / donkeys / and one big man in a red suit…

They even had an elf skating around on rollerblades as a manual pooper scooper (he probably got the most cheers of anyone!).  Kids had a blast and there were just TONS of people to watch the parade…

From there, we caught the bonfire, along with Christmas Carolers, followed by over 200 luminary lights on the Woodstock Green – quite the sight!

If you do come, highly recommend stopping by the Woodstock Inn – it’s a beautiful property, that they decorate really well.  Kids spent way too much time in the life-sized Gingerbread House… then we enjoyed gourmet hot chocolate (including a special “parents” version), while playing in the hotel’s game room (old school arcade games, billiards, foosball, life-sized scrabble, among many other games).

Given the unseasonably warm weather, there was no snow – a welcome respite given that most of these events were outdoors!  But we still got a jumpstart on getting the kiddos geared up for the eventual snow with their ski gear.  If you recall, last year we got Maya up on skis – she did awesome!  This year, we’re trying to get Owen started – he’s only 2.5, but ridiculously coordinated, so will be an interesting experiment!

Club Updates

Despite the Club changing the weekend for their holiday celebrations (only slightly annoying since we booked the trip up there for the events – but fortunately had the aforementioned Wassail Events), the Club also had some beautiful decorations for this weekends gingerbread house and Santa meet-ups!

We also got a sneak peek at the pool construction – the warm weather I think is putting them ahead of schedule – so while before they were planning a 4th of July opening… I think now it’s looking more like Memorial Day weekend.  Sad that we won’t have an indoor pool this winter, but I think it will be worth the wait!