Christmas in Ronald

And so the Christmas saga continues! After leaving Yakima on Christmas Eve, we headed for our "cabin," located in Ronald, just a few miles north of Roslyn, Cle Elum, and Hwy 90. Only rich Seattlites would call our digs a "cabin," because to me it seemed to resemble a very well-built new home. Let's just say I could comfortable move in to this cabin for life. Although they did go overboard with a plethora of whitetail deer accessories. Coincidentally, we did get a little dose of "roughing it" on our first night when we discovered there was no water running through the pipes. Though we searched for an hour to find some kind of shut on/off valve, it was cleverly disguised under the kitchen sink as a plastic white flat handle, and we had to told this by the owners (who I'm sure loved solving our crisis on Christmas Eve), but not before we boiled down newly fallen snow to make our spaghetti dinner. Ahh, snow pasta!

Speaking of deer accessories, yes, that's our beloved stocking tree. What better to serve as a place to hang our stockings than a unique standing lamp base made from replica antlers!

And needless to say, our children, particularly Wyatt, enjoyed his second day of stocking and present opening. Break out the pannetonni! Papa served up a great Christmas dinner, topped off by the boxed Italian dessert that we had wondered about for so many years. It was surprisingly buttery and yummy, especially with ice cream.Most of our time at the cabin was spent napping, reading, eating, sledding, and general frolicking in the snow.
Much to Wyatt's liking, we also watched a good deal of his hero, Davy Crockett. Here Wyatt and Papa catch some of the King of the Wild Frontier. In the foreground is a bowl full of plastic knights from Wyatt's stocking.

We did peel ourselves off the couches for a few outings. One afternoon we headed in to Ellensburg, specifically to enjoy breakfast at the Yellow Church Cafe. And later in the week Liz and Caleb enjoyed a night out at Mama Vallone's in Cle Elum, which served up tasty authentic Italian. If you ever pass though Cle Elum, we recommend it, along with the Cottage Cafe for a good greasy spoon breakfast, and the Pioneer Coffee Company for heavenly Mexican Mocha.

Here you see Jubilee enjoying the ride to Ellensburg.

And here are Liz's fabulous sisters, Geneva and Emily, who sacrificed a great deal of their winter vacation so that they could spend it...well, driving to places like Ellensburg.

Waiting for grub at the Yellow Church.

And when our time ran out at the cabin, we all traveled back to Monroe, where the Buerer's camped out on out small living room floor for two more nights. Here Geneva and Emily enjoy the last holiday cookie decorating of the season, making gingerbread "Vaders" a new tradition.

Thank you family for a great vacation!