Christmastime in Leavenworth, Washington

A few days before Christmas, our daughter Jenni and her husband Will and son Preston came to visit. A couple of years ago we had gone to Leavenworth, Washington during the month of December to see all the Christmas lights, and had enjoyed it so much that we wanted to return again. Leavenworth is a small town in the Cascade Mountains of Washington, that is built and decorated in the Bavarian style.........it looks like a cute little German village. So we packed the car, and headed over the mountains at Stevens Pass.

Ron and I in front of the Danish Bakery......and it is REAL Danish pastry! Our favorite is the vinabrod. Yummmm!

I got to "play" with a good camera this time, and really had fun with it. These photos are a combination of mine and Ron's. We had gone to Leavenworth with the hopes of getting some really good "snow" pictures.........there wasn't any snow! That is very unusual for this time of year, and so that was quite disappointing. (Ron and I are going back in January to try again. We are watching the weather reports every day.)

Ron and Will went out into the village at 2:00 am in the morning, after all the people had gone. (Unfortunately they turned the lights on the trees out at 2:00, but at least they left the lights on the buildings turned on.) Ron had Will drive the car through town, with a 15 second shutter speed, and this is the shot that he got. Pretty cool, huh?

Earlier in the evening when all the cars and people were still in town.

Another shot of town, across from the gazebo in the town square.

It was just getting dark as we walked from out hotel to the town square. The light on all the stores make everything so beautiful and festive.

This is the hotel that we stayed in.....The Bavarian Lodge. It is really nice, and right across the street from the town square, so we didn't have to walk very far.

Me, in front of our hotel entrance.

Jenni, Will and Preston standing by the "Welcome to Leavenworth" sign in the town square. Behind them in the gazebo, where they have different musicians and groups preform during the holiday season. It got a bit chilly, as it was around 25 degrees that night.

Jenni and I as we venture into the village. There were lights on all the trees and every storefront in town. You can't help but get into the Christmas spirit with all the lights and decorations. There was a horsedrawn carriage that would take people on tours through town. It looked like fun, but we would have probably frozen our hind ends just sitting there!

Here we are on the steps of the gazebo. Town wasn't too busy at all, because it was a Monday evening. We had heard that over the weekend, it was like a zoo.

Our hotel had a Baldwin grand piano in the lobby, and there was a sign on it saying that anyone was welcome to play it. So we talked Jenni into playing "Carol of the Bells".....Ron and I were taking pictures of her as she played, and she kept telling us to "quit doing that ....... you are embarassing me!"

The lobby of the Bavarian Hotel is very inviting.....they have hot chocolate, hot cider and Danish butter cookies available to the guests. They also serve a breakfast that is really good.

Preston's legs were a little short to try and keep up with everyone........and he always wanted to go where we weren't going, so we'd end up chasing him. Will finally started packing him on his shoulders......Preston really liked that.......he could see everything and felt like he was right in the middle of everything. He didn't like being in a strange bed though.....the first night he wanted to sleep inbetween Jenni and Will, and would cry if he didn't. None of us got much sleep that first night. The second night was much better......we wore him out first!

Grandma and Preston

Ron, relaxing in the lobby of the hotel.










Me, getting warm in front of the fire.

If you've never been to Leavenworth, it's worth the trip. Hopefully we'll get back there next month, and be able to take some really good photos when there is more snow. It was a nice prelude to Christmas.

Stake Presidency Christmas Dinner

Friday evening, December 18th, we held our annual Stake Presidency Christmas Dinner at our home. These are the wonderful brethren along with their wives, who work with Ron in the Marysville Stake. It is such a joyous occasion when we all get together....we feel like family, as there is a great love felt among all of us.

Seated around the table from left to right, are Wayne Wilcox (1st counselor) and his wife Janet, next is Mike Rounds (stake clerk) and his wife AnnaLisa. Then I am seated with Ron standing beside me. On the right side of the table is Dora Lebo and then her husband Steve (2nd counselor). Next is Rhonda Wilcoxson and Greg (executive secretary.) Ron says that he couldn't perform the heavy responsibilities of his calling without these wonderful brethren. All of them "go the extra mile" in their service and support. It is a privilege to be associated with such good and kind people. Merry Christmas everyone!

Recipes:

Creamy Broccoli Salad

Sauce: 2 cups mayonaise (NOT Miracle Whip)

4 T. sugar (or fructose)

4 T. lemon juice

Salad Mix: 3 - 4 heads broccoli washed and broken into small pieces

1 cup dried cranberries (let them sit in hot water for a while if they are too hard)

1 cup dry roasted peanuts (lightly salted)

3 - 4 green onions, chopped

small package of bacon, cooked crisp and broken into pieces

Blend sauce ingredients together well. Set aside. Prepare salad mix. Add sauce to broccoli salad ingredients and mix thoroughly. Place in refridgerator for at least one hour or overnight before serving.

Southern Bean Casserole

Bottom Layer: 2 cans cut green beans, drained

1 can whole kernal corn, drained (may use frozen)

Next layer, mix together and spread on top of bottom layer: 1 can of Cream of Celery soup

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup chopped onion

Next layer, grate and spread on top of second layer; 1 cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese

Top layer, mix and sprinkle on top: 24 Ritz crackers, crushed,

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Christmas Raspberry/Cranberry Jello

2 small pkgs raspberry jello (as directed on package)

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 package frozen (or fresh) raspberries

2 cups freshly grated (large grate) apples

Optional Whipping Cream for topping

Pistachio Torte

Layer 1 - Crust

1 cup flour

1 cube butter

2 Tb. sugar

1/2 cu p chopped nuts

Layer 2

Soften 12 oz. cream cheese

Mix with 2/3 cup powdered sugar

Fold in 1/2 carton of 9 oz. carton of Cool Whip

Mix well. Spread on cooled crust.

Layer 3

Mix 2 small pkgs of instant pistachio pudding with 4 cups milk, according to package. Spread on top of cream cheese layer

Layer 4

Spread remaining 1/2 carton of Cool Whip on top. Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Chill at least 1 hour before serving.

This torte may be used with instant chocolate pudding also.

Marysville Stake Christmas Concert

Last year the concert got snowed out because of almost 2 feet of snow and water pipes breaking in the Stake building. This year, there was dry weather until the night of the concert when it started to snow. I was not going to to cancel again, no matter what! So, it was "on with the show!"

I am presently the Stake Music Chairman, so one of my responsibilities is to organize and direct our stake's annual Christmas Concert. The Concert was wonderful! Many people told me they felt it was the best Christmas Concert they had ever heard.....anywhere. We have some very talented people in our stake and it was wonderful to be able to work with them. We had around 60 people in the choir this year.......and WOW, what a sound! There were 14 numbers in all, lasting about an hour and 20 minutes.


Jenni came up from Fall City, to play "Carol of the Bells" with the choir......the choir sang, then Jenni played her own arrangement of George Winston's arrangement of Carol of the Bells, then the choir sang again. It worked out wonderful, and of course Jenni stole the show, as usual. My neighbor came and his comment to me later was, "You daughter can sure play a mean piano!"

Ron's first counselor in the Stake Presidency sang the solo for "The Wexford Carol." We wanted to do the Tabernacle Choir version, so I contacted Mac Wilberg (who arranged it) and asked him if I could buy 50 copies for our Stake Music Library. His secretary wrote back and told me that he hadn't published it yet, and that the music was still in his hand-written manuscript. I decided that we couldn't wait for him to publish it, so I transcribed the music from their recording of the song, wrote out parts for the pennywhistle, harp, piano, choir and strings. It sounds just like the original, so anyone listening would think it was the Tabernacle Choir version of it. Wayne did a wonderul job singing it. He told me afterwards that he "rewrote the lyrics to the second verse"....all quite by accident, during the performance! I was concentrating so hard on keep the right beat, that I didn't even notice. (the beat changes from 4 to 3 to 5 beats per measure, practically every other measure, so it takes a lot of concentration!)

The only other solo we had was by Cherlyn Ferguson, who is almost related to me.......(she is my cousin Rick Sutherland's neice) she sang "The Maiden and Her Child." It's a beautiful Irish melody and Cherlyn did a wonderful job. I had piano, flute and bowed psaltery accompany her......it was an incredible haunting sound and gorgeous!

I am already starting to put music together for next year's program. It takes a lot of time to find the right music, then write the narration and do any arrangments or writing of orchestra parts, so that's why I need to start an entire year ahead of time. Little by little the word is getting out about the high quality of our little concert. We had about 700 people attend on Sunday night, and I'm sure that it would have been closer to 1,000 if it had not started snowing.

Speaking of snowing........back to the story of our drive home that evening. Ron, myself, my mother (who had come up to listen to the concert), Greg Wilcoxson (Ron's executive secretary) and Mike Rounds (the Stake Clerk) were the last ones in the building because we had to take down the sound system that we rented, put the extra choir chairs away and bascially put the building back in order. We didn't leave until just after 10:00. As we started driving north, we hit a full-scale blizzard at about the Arlington exit.....just barely a couple of miles north of the stake center. It was snowing heavily all the way home. There was lots of heavy snow on all the limbs of the trees and it was truly beautiful.....until we got to the bottom of the hill that goes into our subdivision on Camano Island.

There were a half a dozen cars parked at the bottom of the hill, so that should have been an indications of how slippery the hill was, but we were determined to get home! So we charged ahead! We didn't even make the crest of the first little rise, and we were slipping so much that we stopped dead in our tracks. So Ron backed down and we got the chains out of the trunk. (Mind you, we are in our Sunday best.....best suit, concert attire and stilhlettos) Ron carries our rubber boots in the trunk, so he donned those and his ski parka (which is also stored in the trunk during the winter) and proceeded to put the chains on.......only to discover that one of the chains was broken. We decided to try going up the hill with only one chain........we didn't get as far as we did the first time up the hill! So back down we go....

By this time an hour had passed and we were getting rather frustrated, to say the least. I put my rubber boots on and got out to help Ron. Ron decided to put the broken chain on anyway.....he just tied off the part that should have attached to the chain. We crossed our fingers and gingerly started up the hill again........ This time it worked! Broken chain and all, we made it up the one mile extremely steep hill to our home!! It felt so good to get home.

The next day it warmed up and all the snow melted. It went from 20 degrees to 52 degrees!

Next year when it comes time for the Christmas Concert again....let's just all pray that if we have snow, it waits until the day AFTER the Christmas Concert!

Perfect Winter Day

December 7, 2009......Ron and I drove up to Mt. Baker to take a photo of Mt. Shuksan (which is just east of Mt. Baker.) We had hoped to get the perfect shot of a Winter Wonderland.....but the snow had melted off the trees (it was only 11 degrees, so it makes you wonder how anything could melt...) The snow has settled too. A couple of weeks ago there was about 100 inches, now there is around 77. I think that we will have to wait for the next snow storm for fresh snow and then go try it again. It was still an incredibly beautiful day though....the air was crystal clear, the mountains were breathtaking, and we were freezing! Didn't get a good picture, but it was worth the trip up the mountain......anyone want to come with us next time?