Temecula at Christmas Time...

Temecula seems to do Christmas up pretty well, so for our gift to ourselves this year, Pat and I decided to head down there and stay one night and check out the area.  Thursday morning we headed out, stayed at our favorite Carter Estate for the night, then stayed through Friday night so we had 2 night of pretty lights!

Europa by far was the favorite.  So many pretty lights and photo ops.  Downtown was super cute, but if we did this again we'd stay on the wine country side and explore more of the wineries and see how they do it up for the holidays.  Just seemed way prettier out there and less crowded.

For breakfast we hit up Corkfire Kitchen.  It kept popping up on my radar and seemed really good.  It was super pretty - on a golf course - and the food was great!

I had a pork belly hash that was awesome!

After this we headed over to Peltzer Winery.  It was one of the ones that popped up as really pretty for Christmas.  They had an ice skating rink, but it didn't open until 4.  Maybe next time!

Next up was Wiens, where our pick up was, and they were having some good deals so we got a few more bottles!

I love this picture!

Hell yes!

After that, we were able to check into Carter, get cleaned up and head to our early dinner over at Bolero.  Then we looked at the beautiful decor of Europa.  It was so pretty!

Walking around Europa drinking our wine!

They had these Igloos you could dine in.  Little overpriced but cute!

Loved this!

Drunken Shrimp

Calamari that was probably the best we've ever had and deconstructed Empanadas

Ceviche

The next morning we woke up to the beautiful vineyards of Carter and watched the hot air balloons.  Took a lovely walk around the grounds.  Then we had a couples massage!  It was sooooo nice.

Such cute decor in the massage place!

Then we hit up Europa for our glass of free wine then decided to head over to Cougar Winery for their Sparkle wine and Apple Tart.  Temecula does this thing called "Temecula Chilled" and a bunch of wineries partake with fun little foods and/or drinks!

Seriously considering moving to Temecula

It actually had Sparkles in it!

Then was downtown to wander, shop and see the lights.  We also hit up their little museum that had a Charlie Brown Christmas Exhibit!.  We decided to eat at 1909 which I had heard a lot about.  It was ok, interesting bar foods.  But the place went off for Christmas.  Very cool!

Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!

1909 Outside

They had "Shots for Kids".  $5 shots that went to charity.  Mine was actually non alcoholic...figured I'd have enough booze.  LOL

Inside!  So crazy!

The bathroom!

We never got a chance to take a picture in this because some couple was doing a whole damn photo shoot!

This guy was just driving back and forth!

It was really a lovely two days away.  Wish we could have stayed longer but we soaked up what we could!