Seattle Social and Getaways

Especially with this being the Giving Season, lets give the best 🎁 of all - life! I've been donating blood since 1998 and before then, as a kid, I used to sign up adults to donate. It's been a while, but after recently donating, I want to go back and do more, and bring a few others with me this time! ~Claudette

I will be there from 1-3pm to donate platelets. 📅 Schedule your time to donate whole blood or other options at https://donate.bloodworksnw.org/donor/schedules/center/1
👉 When you've scheduled a time, post in the comment or message me with your time. Let's make a party of it!

🚩 If spots fill up during this time/day or you can't make this event, I hope you'll schedule to donate on a different day which fits your schedule, even at a different location.

🙏 Many thanks! 🙏

This is a multi-group event, more people may be attending than what you see RSVPd here.

And by Christmas Orphans, I definitely do not mean "Please sir, Can I have some more" kid orphans, I mean grown ups with not enough family in town, who would like to go out and be social. And let me be clear, if you want to bring your locally adopted family to this event, or friends, or kids, or whomever, this is the event for you and them. There is always room for more people, and more delicious food on the table. (Well, hopefully everyone is vaccinated.)

Thats the Who and the What, now for the When and Where

The when is on Christmas Day Dec 25th. We will open the doors at 3:00PM, and start to dive into the yummy things that people have brought at about 4:00PM. With events at my house, we typically go until people leave as conversations are awesome (often as late as 11:00pm).

The where is that I'm at "The Dragon House" 5284 44th Ave SW (on the corner of 44th and Brandon in West Seattle). You can tell when you get here because of the large life sized sculptures in the yard, and down on the planting strip in front is a lifesized sculpture of a naked woman that had the dragon on a leash (she is missing her pet dragon that became only a stump due to a car hitting him). They are carved from trees that grew in those spots. Once you get here there is a set of curved grand entry stairs that are red concrete just to the North of the girl. Come on up, come past the trampoline and up onto the front porch. If you have trouble finding the place, please feel free to call (206) 932-6622 - by voice, it's a landline in the house, and we can tell you how to get here. As a side note, if you have questions ahead of time, you can also feel free to call. Street parking is usually very easy to find close by.

Important Extra notes:

As far as the food: I'll provide a brown sugar coated baked ham. Since this is a civilized event, I'll provide real plates and silverware, the catch here is that you have to do your own dishes. There will be signs up and lots of people can help show you to the kitchen. It's not really a steep price to pay for a wonderful meal. As far as what you bring, this is christmas dinner, this is the time of year you want to bring something amazing. Bring something you feel proud of sharing. Please DO NOT stop at a convenience store on the way here and grab a bag of chips or a bag of hot dogs... This sentiment is not about spending a lot of money or putting in hours and hours of time, it's about taking pride in what you are sharing with the community of people you will be having dinner with. I've got a couple ovens to heat things in, I've got power to make sure a crock pot stays hot, I've got serving utensils. Traditionally the quality of food that people bring to events here is very good, thats one of the reasons I keep having events here!

I'll have the fire lit inside, and there will be great conversations to be had.

This is a no smoking house, and a no animals house. While there are 2 sets of stairs to get in at the front, we have a more level area in back with only one set of stairs, and if you need help getting up them, call and let me know, the guests are always willing to help someone else in.

As usual, I'll try take some time to give tours of some of the more entertaining features of the house, so if you've "always wondered", well this is a great time to find out. In fact, if you are a budding storyteller and want to give some of the tours, reach out to me as a former housemate who loved giving tours probably won't be here this year.
It's been crowded at this event in the past, but this year, I have an empty room on the main floor that we will use as "The Dessert room", and we will use the upstairs kitchen as "the bar".

YES! Bring your kids! (As well as friends) I will have "The ultimate wood block set" next to the christmas tree, and if you've never seen it, you will be amazed. Heck, most adults are amazed by it. What you should NOT bring is paper plates or utensils or firewood.

There is a climbing wall in the house. And the chimney is set up as a climbing Chimney... If anyone wants to come be the belay climbing instructor, let me know, it's always good fun for people that have never tried.

With that, I look forward to seeing everyone on Christmas day.
If you want to see the full facebook event you can see it here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1348304827035694