Over the River and Through the Woods…

Over the mighty Columbia River, through the pine woods, and over four mountain passes we travelled to Grandmother’s house for the holidays. After driving all day long, we arrived in the snowy mountains of central Washington to the warm lights of my parents’ house shining through the winter night.

Little white lights twinkled on birch trees through the snow, and one brightly lit pine tree stood out in the middle of the field.

All looked snug, warm and cheery through the windows. We went inside to a warm greeting by my parents and grandparents, with hot drinks and dinner for the weary travellers.

While sipping a hot buttered rum, I looked out the windows to see icicles hanging from all the eaves, just like in a winter storybook.

Thick drifts of snow covered everything, adorning pine trees with mantles of white and weighing willow branches down almost to the ground. This was a real live winter wonderland.

The kids wasted no time in getting out there to go sledding down the hills. The driveway was packed and frozen, and made an especially good sledding run.

My brother and his fiancee arrived and helped build a snowman family in the field. This was an ambitious bunch, making snowfolk taller than themselves!

This very expressive snowman puffed on his pine-stick pipe and contemplated the meaning of it all.

This wild snow person sported a fancy cedar boa and an icicle mohawk!

(A Snow-Hawk!)

We made a trip into the bustling little town of Leavenworth one afternoon, and I spied these lovely red berries hanging bright against the snowy landscape on European mountain ash trees.

After all those good meals we were eating, it was fun to go out for walks on the snowy trails through the willows and dogwoods down to the creek on my parents’ property. Everything was silent with the blankets of snow absorbing all the sounds, except for the songs of winter birds on the branches overhead. With all the blue jays, quail and chickadees, it was quite the happening place.

Eagle Creek flowed through the snowy banks with laughing, gurgling sounds.

Exchanging gifts was a lot of fun with many handmade and thoughtful items. My brother and his fiancee put together these hot toddy kits in glasses with ingredients from the Pike Place Market in Seattle. There were honey sticks, dried lemon slices, tea bags, little vials of lemon juice, and small bottles of whisky inside along with a recipe. They also got a magic kit for my son and an origami kit for my daughter. My kids were very pleased to get the wool sweaters they asked their Great-Grandma for (isn’t there some running joke about those sweaters your Grannie gives you that you never want…well, my kids ASKED for them!) and from their grandparents, some duck, hawk and crow calls for communicating with the birds around our house. There were lots of books, warm wool socks, and even a Smithsonian build-an-engine model kit. Many other thoughtful gifts came in packages from relatives far away. There was a lot of joy in all the giving and receiving.

Outside, the snow kept falling and the kids kept on sledding and romping around with our dogs.

At the end of the visit we went on a draft horse drawn sleigh ride at Eagle Creek Ranch up the road. We dashed through the valley with snowy forests all around, along the willow thickets by the creek and out through open fields. Little sleigh bells made a high ringing sound as we went along.

After a visit from some college friends passing through, we said our goodbyes, packed up and made the long drive back home over four mountain passes, pine forests and the Columbia River back to our farmhouse in green, rainy Oregon.

It was a mountain Christmas to remember.