Have you ever had one of those weekends that was just so perfect you can hardly believe it actually happened?  I was lucky enough to experience one of those recently, with a large group of my vintage-loving friends no less.  There was hiking, lounging, eating, drinking, dancing, smoking, carol singing, trap shooting, general merry-making and some fabulous vintage duds, of course.

One of our good friends works for the parks department and was able to secure a lodge in a state park in Peekskill, just upstate of NYC, for a Saturday night early in December.  Built in the 1930’s, it was perfectly rustic, with a men’s wing and a woman’s wing, a kitchen for cooking big meals, a huge fireplace and a great room with plenty of room for dining and dancing.   We started off our weekend with a brisk hike, with our parks department friend as our guide.  The weather was perfect and the hike was easy and there were dogs to play with and beautiful scenery to look at.  We were all warm in our tweed and wool.

After the hike we had a moment to relax and enjoy the fireplace before we went to dress in formal wear for dinner. (During the planning of the weekend one of our friends had jokingly suggested that we dress formally for dinner, but with our group of vintage loving collectors it just made sense.)  So, with typical style, we all dressed in our vintage finest and before dinner had our portraits taken by our amazing photographer friend Rose Callahan, who took all the beautiful photos in this post.

After portraits we all sat down for a wonderful dinner prepared by our hosts which included some toasts and some Christmas crackers. (After a team effort to change the light bulbs so we could have some nice mood lighting…)

After dinner we relaxed for a bit, while some of the boys stepped outside for a smoke and some of use even snuck in an after dinner nap, then we cleared away the tables, and someone brought out the portable record player and the dancing started.

After dancing, we donned our sleeping attire (sleeping caps included!) and gathered around the fireplace to drink some more, tell stories, and sing Christmas carols really, REALLY badly.  Most of us crawled into bed during the wee hours of the morning, some more drunk than others and facing quite the hangover the next morning.

The next morning after a hearty breakfast fixed by our hosts we ventured out to the main event for the day, trap shooting.  We were given a lesson by a great instructor and we each took a round, and tried to keep warm in the freezing cold by warming ourselves by the stove and eating meat pies.  I couldn’t quite warm up enough (I am a big baby when it comes to the cold, I admit!) so I headed back to the lodge to warm up and enjoy the fireplace one last time before we headed back home while everyone else displayed their shooting prowess on the field.

All in all it was a nearly perfect weekend and one that we all speak about with wonder and affection.  There is nothing better than spending time with friends and we all hope that there will be more weekends like this in the future!