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Yule Feast 2011: Barony of Dragon's Laire

A Barony in the Kingdom of An Tir which is
a Part of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA, Inc)

Yule 2011 was a fabulous event! Thanks to the event steward, Lady Kierran, and the head cook for the feast, Lord Petr, and all their wonderful volunteers for making the event so grand.

Event News and Roundup

Notes of Appreciation from the Coronets and Event Staff

We wanted to send our letter of gratitude and observations from a Dragon's Laire Yule Feast that we enjoyed a great deal. With the Baronial Succession in Aquaterra scheduled for the same day, we know there were Baronial members who had to make difficult choices. We would like to take this opportunity to send a fond farewell to Their Excellencies Hauk and Rosamund and a welcome to Their Excellencies Steinolf and Sineidin as the new Coronets of Aquaterra. We very sincerely appreciated all of the Dragon's Laire Populace who attended the Dragon's Laire Yule Feast and provided to the spirit of the season that permeated the event. Thank you.

Many Thanks to Lady Kierran for organizing the event as Autocrat. To have an event where the focus was the gathering of the populace and a feast was something a little different from what we've been accustomed. But we enjoyed the opportunity to talk to the people of our Baronial Family and get to know them a little better. When we are focused on Championships and Competitions it can be difficult to pay attention to other things and other people and events like this give us the opportunity to do just that and we thank Lady Kierran for giving us that opportunity.

When we arrived on site we were quickly surrounded with people eager to help us unload and get started with set up. Thank you to THL Eileen, Lady Jess, M'Lord Ehrig and M'Lady Inga for helping us bring in all the 'stuff' we needed for the day. Your help was sincerely appreciated!

Many thanks to THL Eileen for being the gate coordinator. She was there practically the entire day working hard. Thank you very much for your efforts.

When Lady Brenna arrived she was a marvel of creativity in decorating the hall. We sincerely appreciated the greenery and the hanging of the banners and backdrops. They went far into turning a basement hall into a festive atmosphere for the event. Thank you, Brenna! I know I saw Lord Raedmon (formerly known as Dylan :-)) and Rick helping her a great deal in this effort, but I'm hoping she'll post the names for the rest of her help. :-)

We can't thank our retinue and court support enough for everything they did for us at Yule! THL Caius was ever present and always willing to provide his voice as our herald for the day. Dame Gwen, Tsuruko Sensei and THL Madrun were constantly attending to our every need. We barely had to lift our finger before they were RIGHT THERE giving us anything we needed. Thank You!

M'Lady Inga was also providing help over the course of the day. She was everywhere, doing everything! She was still there at the very end of the day, and still cheerful and giving. Thank you, Inga! :-)

We attended the seminar given by THL Madrun on the new Arts and Sciences Championships (Object, Bardic and Research) that are set to take place at Candlemas in February. There were approximately ten of us sitting around the table. Good questions were asked and good conversation had, as well as the clearing up of concepts that were not quite understood. The results were favorable. If you are thinking of entering the Championships at all, please come talk to THL Madrun, or ourselves. We are quite excited about the possibilities of the 'single entry' concept. We all really love to talk about it as well, so don't hesitate! :-)

While Madrun's seminar was in progress THL Alaricus had several attentive student in his archery class. As a branch, Dragon's Laire is certainly lucky to have a core of the most experienced and expert archers in the Kingdom. We are definitely appreciative of that fact!

And as we finished the Arts and Sciences seminar, M'Lord Emil's class on rope rings started and looked like it was fun as well. There were many times during the day we witnessed the children of the Barony rolling and tossing those rope rings everywhere. :-) Thank you, Emil. Also, many thanks to Emil for providing more donations to the Toy Chest. The children love having the opportunity to plunder the Toy Chest at the start of Court. It is nice to see the smiles on their faces and this is due to the generosity of individuals such as Emil. Thank you!

As the day progressed we had a great session of dance! Even though it was the formal testing of the Serjeantry candidates on their dance, many of the attending populace had the opportunity to join in and have some fun themselves. Many thanks to THL Jahnkin and ThL Madrun for providing dance instruction. After an hour or so of dance it is easy to see what a workout it is, I was beat! But it was definitely a lot of fun!

The Toys-For-Tots campaign was a definitely success! I stopped counting at over a hundred toys! I can't wait to see the final results from THL Jenae. Many thanks to THL Jenae for organizing and leading the charge for this effort. It is definitely a worthy cause. Many thanks also to ThL Jenae and THL Talon for gathering up all the toys and ensuring they made it to the proper destination.

A special thank you to Dame Tamlyn for her individual donation of over twenty toys! It was incredible to see so many all at once. Thank you, Dame Tamlyn for your generosity!

Because of the lay-out of the hall, our evening court was a little more informal than usual. We thank you all for your patience with that aspect. Congratulations to all the recipients of awards at Court:

Lady Adena Darkstar was also awarded a mug (created by Dame Gwenllyn Potter) featuring the Baronial Populace Device for all of her efforts of the past year. This was in connection with the dragon's head tokens we've been giving out over the past year for those we witness providing extensive and continued service at events. We especially noticed Adena's efforts and have awarded her this recognition. We're tentatively calling it the 'Dragons of the Barony'. We could not have the successful and fun events that we do without the efforts of our volunteers. We appreciate their hard work immensely!

The new back-drop manufactured by Lady Kierran and THL Arion looked magnificent. Thank you both for its presence at the event. It will look nice at both indoor and outdoor events as scenery behind the thrones!

The feast was fantastic! Lord Petr Catspawz and his staff did a fantastic job with the food. It was fabulously delicious (as can be attested to the fact that we snagged left-overs to take home :-)). I know that THL Krisna Kalja, M'Lady Diana of Kent and M'Lady Inga provided help in the kitchen as well. Thank you to all the cooking staff for your hard work. It was appreciated sincerely!

Many thanks to THL Mateusz z Plocka for leading the toasts of the evening and to THL Richard Dragun for providing your heraldic services towards finishing our Court Business later in the evening. Happy Birthday, Mateusz!!!! :-)

Many thanks to THL Jenae for leading the Tree Decoration siege ornament 'thing-making'. :-) Many people had fun with it and I intend to hand the 'Baron Arontius' decoration made by Mael-Duin above my desk at work. :-)

The dessert auction was fantastic to witness. Thank you to all you participated with contributions and purchases!!!! And a special thank-you to Master Cedric for providing his voice to the Auction as the Master of Ceremonies. Definitely appreciated!

Great work, Elen (Helen) for your Yule Log as it was awarded the prize for best feast table decoration. :-)

I know there was a dessert contest as well, organized by Lady Aileen and judged by THL Theodoric and THL Rycheza. But I did not catch the winner of that contest. Hoping someone can post some more details on that.

Finally, many thanks for all the help in clean up. It went quickly and we were all home relatively early. Thank you very, very much for that!!! :-)

I know that we've forgotten and overlooked people and activities in this missive. That was not by choice. We hope people will add to this with their details of what they witnessed over the day and the people who helped in any capacity.

The Yule Season is typically where we think of family and the gathering of friends to celebrate the conclusion of the year. We can't express how much we appreciate all of you and how proud we are to be the Baron and Baroness of the greatest Barony in An Tir, The Barony of Dragon's Laire. Thank you very much for making this as special as it has been and will continue to be.

We wish you all the best during this holiday season.

Arontius and Laurellen
Baron and Baroness of Dragon's Laire.

Sent to the Dragon's Laire Email List on 12/04/2011

From THL Rycheza

Lemon was the overriding theme of the Dessert Contest this year, from the delicate Dad's Cookies through the decadently rich lemon filed globes to the bright lemon bars at the end. Beside these delights we had a beautiful layer cake appointed with colored pictures, cute as a button chocolate cupcakes and spiced wedding cookies to round out the field. As the entries were presented anonymously, I do not have names for the contestants, perhaps others can fill in the blanks.

Choosing just one winner was too difficult and we, Theodoric, Adiminus(sp?) and myself, decided to award two prizes, one for taste and one for presentation.

On the presentation side, the cake was quite stunning and received the prize, although the cupcakes and the rich lemon filled cookies were also lovely.

On the taste side, it was a very close race in which the spiced wedding cookies barely edged out the lemon cookies and the lemon bars. We found the spices well balanced against the sweetness and the small cookie kept them in proportion.

Thank you to all who entered. Without entries there can be no contest.

Rycheza z Polska.

Sent to the Dragon's Laire Email List on 12/06/2011

Date: Event was held 3 December 2011
Fraternal Order of Eagles Hall, Aerie 2338
4011 Jackson Ave
Port Orchard, WA 98366

The Event Steward

HL Kierran