THANKSGIVING      

Do you love walks in the crisp autumn air?  Do you love to kick the golden leaves on the ground and hear them crunch as you walk?  Does it feel good to be wearing that sweater Mom knit for you and to wrap your hands around that warm mug when you first get inside after a brisk walk?  Enjoy the aroma of your pumpkin pie when it comes out of the oven at the Homestead House this Thanksgiving and curl up in a comfy chair with a good book or reflect on the year as it is about to come to a close.  From the Homestead House, you’ll have a bird’s eye view of miles of grassy pastureland and evergreen covered mountains as Mother Nature stands on the verge of taking herself down for a long winter’s sleep.   Whether you want to take yourself and a very special someone on a holiday for that much needed R&R or you want to take the entire family on a Thanksgiving they will always remember, Mahogany Ridge can fulfill all of your dreams and more.  The Homestead House will be prepared for you with the most special touches of autumn--toasty flannel sheet on the beds, colorful wreaths depicting the fruits of the harvest will adorn the doors.  Accents of the colors of nature will appear here and there in the home’s décor.  Candles that fill the air with the fragrance of the things you love to smell just as they come from the oven will tease your senses and beautiful pumpkin serving dishes will adorn your dinner table.  You won’t have to look far to see signs of the harvest at Mahogany Ridge.  Come stay with us!   

CHRISTMAS

The Homestead House is decorated in the spirit of the season beginning right in the kitchen.  The house’s famous rooster dishes are traded this time of year for dinnerware with a name and theme depicting Christmas that could not be more appropriate for a vacation cabin in a setting like ours—“Christmas Valley”.  Your holiday table is adorned with dishes depicting four different Christmas in the Country scenes of which you will feel like you are a part in our neck of the woods, Jess Valley.  Your Christmas table will be set when you arrive; you need only light the candles!  Let us know the approximate time of your arrival and we’ll even have the fire burning for you in the fireplace as well as the lights on the Christmas tree.  And speaking of the tree, go on in and meet all the characters adorning the boughs; there are moose rowing canoes, wearing cross country skis and snow shoes, bears with their fishing poles and fish who have “taken the bait.”  Each bedroom is decorated with its own personal Christmas tree adorned with ornaments depicting the theme of that special bedroom.  There is the "Log Cabin Suite" with its snowman patchwork and lasso ornaments fastened with red poinsettias.  There is the “At the Lake” Bedroom featuring ornaments of everything an avid fisherman would own.  Last but not least perhaps, is the “Woodlands View” Bedroom, the room in the house that is dedicated to all of nature’s little critters, the squirrels, the birds, bees and butterflies, raccoons and owls,   In this room, you will feel like you are in the middle of the forest!

How long has it been since you’ve seen Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”?  You’ll be able to find a copy of this old classic in the house; why not settle down on the cozy sofa under a snug throw for a viewing of ol’ Bing and a cup of spiced cider?  Read stories to the children from books from the bookshelves or listen to your favorite Christmas tunes on the stereo.   There’s cross country skiing, sledding and snowmobiling if you take in winter fun and sports.  Or curl up next to the window with a cup of hot coffee or cocoa with your love and a game of checkers or chess or maybe just a long talk while you watch big, fluffy snow flakes fall gently outside.  

You’ll be able to bake a pie, a cake or roast the turkey.  We pretty much guarantee everything you’ll need in the kitchen will be there.  Just bring groceries for the things you’re hungry for.  After dinner, go for a soak in the hot tub and make a wish on a star as there’s another guarantee we can make—in the absence of clouds, there’s no smog and no city lights to compete with the stars taking center stage in our night sky—even with every candle on the deck aglow.

While in that old movie, the wish came true for a White Christmas, you can see how Jimmy Stewart’s realization of “It’s a Wonderful Life” rings true at Mahogany Ridge, for having with you those you love at this special time of year, in a very special place, allows you the time and the opportunity  to relax, reflect and be restored so that you can truly contemplate all of your blessings and find it’s really a wonderful life! 

NEW YEARS

If celebrating is something you have on your mind and you have it in you to be the host with the most, consider hosting your party from the Homestead House.  The cabin’s open floor plan is ideal for entertaining and the cook can carry on in the kitchen without feeling closed off from the rest of the festivities   Eat, drink and be merry!  The Homestead House has board games, poker cards and chips, a full kitchen for preparing your favorite party foods.  Barware is provided as well as the blender—even your cocktail napkins, engraved with the name of your very favorite place for recreation—Mahogany Ridge!