As some of you might know, I grew up in Syracuse, NY and have spent the past eight years in Charlotte, NC.  I grew up with A LOT of snow.  I mean A LOT.  We’ve had storms deliver over six feet in a day.  Every year during the holiday seaon, houses light up and parks display the holiday lights, and it’s the reason I return home with my family every year.

However, I love living in the South.  Trust me, you can get sick of snow.  We always joke that a day or two is all we need and I am SO excited that I’ve just recently been invited to join a group of wonderful bloggers for a Winter Wonderland retreat this weekend!

This weekend, I get that two days of Christmas with my friends and family.  Not only do we get to see real snow, but we get to see it INSIDE.  THAT is fantastic.  We can actually follow that up with an indoor water park if we want to.  It’s sheer bliss.

Check this out -

This December marks the fifth anniversary of Snowland, an annual holiday tradition at Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.^® , North America’s largest family of indoor waterpark resorts. The month-long celebration welcomes families into the Lodge to celebrate in a unique, family-friendly way.

The winter wonderland experience starts as soon as guests enter Great Wolf Lodge through the Grand Lobby. Images of snowflakes, icebergs, twinkling lights, decorated trees and other festive decorations fill the space. And several times a day, holiday music plays to compliment the three times daily Snow Show – yes, that would be real snow falling from the snow-making machines hidden in the rafters, showering the children below.

The holiday experience continues with a variety of themed activities throughout the Lodge:

• Holiday Story Time with Rowdy the Reindeer

• The Writing Depot, where children can write, decorate and mail letters directly to Santa

• Polar Wolf Walk – a wintery nature hike for kids to site penguins, polar bears and more

• North Pole University, complete with educational activities to earn a diploma and special gift

• Toy Creation Station, where children can create toys to keep or give to a friend

• Wrapping Depot for guests to have presents wrapped on-the-spot

• Special musical guest performances

• Holiday caroling

• Santa appearances

• Animated Great Clock Tower holiday performances

Snowland wraps up with the celebration of New Year’s Eve and the annual Snowball, a family-friendly event that includes music, dancing and special waterslide duck races (with prizes). Naturally, all stays include passes to the 84-degree indoor waterpark.

WOOT!  THAT has got to be the most amazing holiday experience EVER.  What’s even more special is that if you’ve been reading this week’s blog, you can tell I’ve not only been under the weather but so super depressed.  I’ve been to the doctors and am on the meds I need to recover and am told I’ll be great by Saturday!

Seeing my children able to experience snow in their home town just makes the holiday all the more special.  Since we travel out of town every year for a few weeks, we don’t decorate inside the home.  Our cat would terrorize the tree and our toddler would terrorize both the cat and tree.  We put lights outside, but it’s just not the same.

Check in next week to see about how the weekend went, I’ll be posting pictures on Facebook and Twitter as I experience it, and I’ll sum it all up here.  The beauty of this resort is that it’s not just in Carolina.  You can visit their website to see what cities this wonderful event is available in and enjoy this Winter Wonderland with your family!

For additional information, please visit www.greatwolf.com or call 1.866.925.WOLF (9653) for specific dates, events, and rates.

Disclosure: The featured event was provided to me, at no cost, by the representing PR agency for the sole purpose of supplying my honest view of this event. I did not accept monetary compensation for reviewing or writing about this experience, and all opinions expressed are my own.