Thanksgiving weekend is almost over.  Although we did not have out-of-state guests stay with us, we did spend a wonderful weekend with friends and family.  There were activities throughout the Rogue Valley starting with the kick off of the holidays with last week’s annual Gingerbread Jubilee at the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater in Medford. Unbelieveable creations of all kinds were displayed and made by all age groups and later auctioned off with proceeds going to help make it possible for the Craterian to bring national and international performing artists to our community.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is always held for the Ashland’s Festival of Light with a parade culminating in the Plaza for the grand illumination of more than a million lights adorning the downtown buildings.  This celebration will definitely put you into the spirit of the season. 

Saturday was was a day of giving with net proceeds from books purchased at Barnes & Noble in Medford going to the SMART reading program in Jackson County.  This was a good day to buy for all our little guys and a few for ourselves as well.  Later in the day we drove up to the beautiful Applegate wineries with cans of food to donate to Access.  We met friends and ran into several old time Applegate friends at Schmidt and Wooldridge - our two favorite wineries up there.  My goodness it was a beautiful day with so many people enjoying the weather, the scenery, and the wonderful wine (we purchased a 2007 Syrah from Wooldridge to save for a special occasion - Maybe our “Wing Day” at Mt. Shasta in January with the whole family. 

To end this fun weekend we are taking our grandson to the Rogue Valley Railroad show at the Medford Armory to see the model railroad layouts, historical railroad artifacts and memorabilia.  Last year was his first time there and he was just fascinated with all the moving trains, many rolling through decorated holiday scenes.  All proceeds go to the the Railroad Park.

So much to do this holiday season.  I will be helping this year with the Providence Festival of Trees also held at the Medford Armory starting this coming Wednesday.   This is the 18th year of the Festival and is a display of elegantly decorated holiday trees in all types of themes by local designers.   The trees are auctioned off on Wednesday but kept up through Sunday for public viewing.  All proceeds of the auction go towards the Providence Community Health Foundation.

Friday Dec. 4th is the Jacksonville Tree lighting ceremony and celebration of Jacksonville’s Victorian Christmas.  There will be a parade, rides in the horse-drawn wagon, and town criers and carolers throughout the season.

We will be taking our annual trek to Camp Baker Road in Phoenix once again to cut our tree.  And of course we can’t forget skiing at our own Mt. Ashland ski resort.  Just a few more snowfalls and they will be ready to open.  So, if you have to stay home this year there are more fun events than you could possibly do.   Our valley is full of wonderful activities like these going on throughout the rest of this year.