Christmastime in Leavenworth 2014!

One of our family's favorite Christmas traditions

is spending a weekend in Leavenworth, WA in December.

It is a beautiful little "Bavarian Village" surrounded by some very majestic looking peaks

just on the eastern side of the Cascade mountain range.   

Our traditional family photo by the "Welcome to Leavenworth" sign!

But first . . .  a few pictures of our journey from home to this quaint little town.

We stopped at White Pass for the boys to do some sledding!

This was the day before the ski slopes officially opened,

so they let them sled on the lower portion of one of the hills!

 "LOOK!  NO HANDS!"

While the boys went sledding, us girls stayed dry and warm in the camper, and took pictures! :-) 

A girl and her dog.

 Oh, and we snacked a lot!

 "Doritos make me HAPPY!"

Anna keeps a watchful eye on Victoria's Doritos in her hand.

 Awwww . . .

 We rented a little KOA cabin for the overflow from our camper.

 Two sets of bunks . . . perfect for a certain foursome!

 We hit the town all bundled up around 5pm on Friday night.

There was a light rain,

so it wasn't quite cold enough for snow. 

But still quite chilly!  

 There's a little sledding hill right in the center of the town square.

 

 

A few of us listened to the lovely bell choir!

 Friday night . . . pizza night!

 

 Back at the cabin, some game playing commenced!

 And little ones got comfy-cozy in their Christmas sleepers,

for nestling down in the camper.

 On Saturday morning, we woke up to a couple inches of fresh snow,

with some freezing rain on top!!

So, the truck slid and fish-tailed a bit down the campground's non-snow-plowed hill.

Fortunately, most of the kids were not in the truck/camper at the time.

They walked down the hill later. 

Anna, the dog, got a "sleigh" ride in her crate!

  First on the agenda,

was to build a snowman with the fresh snow . . .

 

 made to look just like this guy . . .

 Then, make some snow angels!

 And visit our favorite little gingerbread bakery!

 

 

And have some fun in a very cool hat shop!

 And Valerie actually made a very nice purchase there!

 Then, last and best of all is the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony!

(The next two photos were taken by towering Kyle!)

 Here's us in the midst of all those people!

 We love this part very much,

because in front of this huge crowd of thousands of people,

the MAYOR of Leavenworth proclaims from center stage . . .

we need to remember the true "Reason for the Season" . . .

that it is about the birth of Jesus Christ!!! 

Woo hoo!  You can imagine how refreshing this is!!!

The buttons Victoria (above) and Kyle (below) are wearing
were purchased from American Family Association. 

 Listening to . . . guess who?  . . .while waiting for Daddy to pick us up at the end of the day!

 A snowman Joe made all by himself just before we left Leavenworth.

 A beautiful picture snapped on our journey home today.

Thank you, Lord!