Last night my friend Shannon and I went to Mahoney’s in Winchester for their 7th Annual Ladies Night Out.  Despite being a former Mahoney’s employee, I had never heard of this event before.  Yup, picture it.  Me working in a garden center.  I picked dead leaves off plants for many days that summer…

I had never heard of this Ladies Night Out, but Shannon drives past Mahoney’s on her commute home every night and started seeing advertising for the event.

Call the girls and join us, rain or shine, for our Annual “Ladies Night Out” Open House.  Includes wine and cheese tasting, prizes, demonstrations, and exhibits from dozens of local businesses specializing in products & services perfect for the holidays.  All this, plus the official kick off of Mahoney’s incredible Christmas Shoppe, a must-see year after year!

Normally I am not a huge fan of Christmasy things before Thanksgiving (no offense to any of you who have been blasting Xmas jams since Halloween), but this sounded fun to me.  They had me at wine and cheese.

The event was right up my alley, with all sorts of different vendor tables set up.  However, as much as I love browsing through jewelry, knick knacks, and scarves (duh) I love sampling different foodie products more.

I really enjoyed the samples of organic olive oils and vinegars from Olio Di Melli.

I didn’t snap any other foodie pictures, but I also really liked the chili and butternut squash soup tasting from Masa, a Southwest Bar & Grill Restaurant in Woburn.  The other vendor that stood out to me was the yummy clam chowder from The Cape Cod Lady.  I sampled some dark chocolate at some point, and some cider, but I was hoping for more food.

The wine samples from both the Coastal Vineyards and the Westport Rivers Winery were fun to try.

However.  My biggest complaint is that there was barely any cheese.  If I am sampling wine, and the event advertises cheese, then deliver me some cheese!

We still liked the wine without the cheese, don’t get me wrong.

Shannon and I had a nice time catching up, entering raffles for prizes, and walking through the holiday section.  They had tons of cute Christmas ornaments and decorations, as well as Christmas trees decorated galore!

They had so many “themed” Christmas trees.  The one above was a “sweets” theme, and they had more themes than I could even ever think of.  I am a huge fan of themed things, and a huge fan of Christmas decorations, but this is one of those things that always seems to look better in the store or in a catalog.  I feel if I were to try this myself at home it would just look weird.  But who knows.

I don’t think I was fully in the Christmas spirit just yet, but all the displays were super cute.

I did leave with a little something to send to my Foodie Penpal this month, but I’m not saying what it is so it can be a surprise.

Thanks, Shan, for a fun night!

Which of you readers are guilty of jumping full force into Christmas before you even celebrate Thanksgiving?!  C’mon, fess up.