My husband Sean turned forty last December.  The thing is, he's a Christmas baby, so there is only so much we can do to celebrate him during that time.  What he wanted for his birthday was a weekend away with friends, where the only thing we had to worry about was drinking wine and entertaining ourselves.  We decided to rent a guest house for a weekend in February, on the grounds of one of our favorite wineries, Stoller Family Estate.

We had a wonderful time and were really impressed with the house and our stay.



Initially, we planned to have Sean's birthday weekend towards the end of January, but the property was booked.  Make sure you plan ahead well in advance.  As it happened, the weekend we stayed there was a snowstorm (well more of a threat of one, though we did get some snow), so we enjoyed that snowed-in feeling and took full advantage of our leisure time at the house.

Stoller has three rental properties.  We stayed at the Wine Farm House that accommodates up to eight people.  We are members of the wine club, so we were able to rent the property at a discounted rate. The property itself includes a master suite with a king size bed and its own bathroom, with a soaking tub and walk-in shower.  I made sure to make time for a relaxing bath!  There are three more bedrooms with queen size beds, a bedroom with two twin beds, and two additional full bathrooms. We also had a gourmet kitchen, a living room with a larger sofa, a dining room that seated ten, a sitting room area upstairs, and a deck overlooking the pond.  There is even a grill, for seasonal food prep, and a washer and dryer available.  Even though it was pretty chilly out, I loved going out on the large front porch, sitting in an Adirondack chair, and cooling off in the breeze.

We all enjoyed our stay so much and look forward to doing it again in the future.  Nigel and I both love to be prepared, so the two of us ended up bringing lots of extra kitchen stuff we thought we might need.  We had no idea what the kitchen would actually have.  Turns out, we really didn't need most of what we brought.  The kitchen is stocked with plenty of pans and bowls, glasses and utensils, spices, soap and paper towels, etc.  Most of what we needed was right there on-site.  (Though we did make sure to bring our wine glass gifts for everyone.  We picked them up from Hollywood's Custom Designs at the Portland Wine and Seafood Fest.)

We began our weekend on Friday afternoon.  Everyone was showing up at different times, depending on their work schedules.  Sean and I got there first to check in and take photos of the property.  Once all that was squared away, I pulled out the Star Wars birthday decorations to set the tone for the weekend.  We all decided that each person would be in charge of bringing their own dinner for Friday, and bringing any snacks and drinks they wanted throughout the weekend.  Nigel and Joaquin were in charge of Saturday's breakfast (Canadian bacon/egg cups, hashbrowns, banana bread French toast, bacon), while I was in charge of Saturday's dinner.  (Sean chose BBQ chicken sliders, homemade coleslaw, and a mac and cheese bar.  I made plain mac and cheese and had various mix-ins that people could add to their liking.)  We played games both nights, and played Mario Kart most of Saturday.  We also declared that everyone who had a onesie bring it along for the party!

The House

The Fun

In our onesies with our new wine glasses!

Game time!

Nigel and Joaquin

Luciano and Daymien

Sean and I

Then Miss Felis and I had our own photoshoot

Breakfast Time!

The boys playing Mario Kart

Doing a wine tasting at the winery on our way back home