Erin talked a bit about our trip to Leavenworth already. I'm picking up the story at about 4:15 pm. We are on the east side of a very tall mountain, so it's getting dark. Neither of us quite expected the slush to be as thick as it was, so my feet are wet, and our hands are cold. We've been standing or walking for most of the last five hours. And we're making our way towards the crowds. Yeah, if we'd wanted a good view, we would have had to stand in the cold a lot longer than either of us were in the mood for at that point in the day. We staked out an okay spot, and waited. And waited. And tried to hear what was going on. There was some singing, and some speeches, and finally Santa! Yeah, I know, a little bit of an anticlimax. Next, if I recall the series of events correctly, some people played alphorns , which was pretty cool, although I could barely hear them. Then it was time for, according to the description of this event in the flye...