Festive includes all the trimmings
If you ever get invited to dinner at my Aunt Lorna’s house, count your blessings and go without delay.
That woman can cook. And my Uncle Don volunteers her services with profligate and impulsive abandon.
Maybe that explains all the food-laden “festive holiday events” at Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat in Leavenworth this winter.
I’m not sure to whom that refers, but it’s definitely not Aunt Lorna – and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Uncle Don had conscripted her to serve up your Sleeping Lady Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 27.
While she bastes, you’ll lounge around in your room, where “holiday-themed amenities, including Christmas trees, add a festive flare.”
Once you’re sufficiently festive, make your way down to the buffet. That’s where you’ll load up on free-range roasted turkey with apricot stuffing, pan-fried wild salmon with olive tapenade, garlic mashed potatoes, Spanish fig cake, roasted sweet pumpkin quark cheesecake, blah, blah, blah.
I’m going to assume the cheesecake showcases not elementary particles but European cheese curd – just like the Pilgrims used to eat. But that’s just a guess.
Had your fill? Time to settle up.
Depending on your age, dinner will set you back a goose egg (children 4 and under), $25 for the older juniors and $40 for the full-grown members of your party.
With the dishes barely dry, Sleeping Lady has another trick up her weary sleeve. Tickets for “A Holiday Evening with Tingstad and Rumbel” run from $8 to $45, again depending on your years.
Grammy winners Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel will perform selections from their CDs, “Comfort & Joy” and “A Moments Peace,” while you once again tie on the feedbag.
According to their Web site, this guitar and woodwind duo’s music “speaks to the heart and embraces relationships to the natural world and tradition. It doesn’t say anything about speaking to bellies.
For the same price tag as Thanksgiving dinner, the resort will spread another buffet before you, starring pumpkin, spinach and ricotta tortellini; roast beef; salmon with Asian vegetables; and more.
The item I find most interesting is “Classic Lemon Meringue Pie.”
Every Father’s Day I have to trot out my lemon meringue pie skills so my dad can have his favorite. I won’t lie to you. It’s a huge production.
So I’m sending him packing to Sleeping Lady this Christmas, where he can also enjoy Christmas brunch, Christmas dinner, any number of massages – including polarity, craniosacral therapy , reiki, etc. – and cross-country ski and snowshoe rentals.
All this good cheer can be yours, starting at $112 per person, based on double occupancy. Make your reservation at www.sleepinglady.com or (800) 574-2123.
Grow west, young man
Spring is almost here.
At least it is in Seattle.
From Feb. 18 to 22, the Northwest Flower and Garden Show – the third largest in North America – will present 25 full-scale gardens over six acres and 120 seminars for garden neophytes, old hands and everyone in between.
This year’s theme, “Sustainable Spaces, Beautiful Places” directs focus on gardening materials and techniques good for the environment; water and soil conservation; self-sustaining, easier-to-care-for gardens; native plants; organic vegetable gardens; creative recycling and composting; and other commendable practices.
If you’re 6 years old, you can get in for $4. Your little sister costs nothing.
Ticket prices for the rest of us vary quite a bit, depending on how many you are, how long you want to stay and how quickly you get your order in.
Dig up details at www.gardenshow.com or (206) 789-5333.
Regional events
Nov. 20-23, Festival of Trees, Wenatchee. Holiday shopping, free pictures with Santa Claus, more than 50 silent auction items, “elaborately” decorated Christmas trees, entertainment, mini trees, and wreaths. Now that’s a festival. www.wenatcheefestivaloftrees.com/ 509-663-ARTS)
Dec. 5-14, Anchorage International Film Festival, Anchorage. “Provocative” and independent films make their way to Alaska from around the world. Public screenings run in eight venues. (www.anchoragefilmfestival.org/ 907-338-3690)