The Mountlake Terrace Plaza senior living facility, located at 23303 58th Ave. W., held a holiday bazaar Dec. 17 from 4-7 p.m. for residents and the surrounding community.
Festivities included a petting zoo, a holiday market featuring local vendors, carolers singing, pictures with Santa Claus, food and refreshments.
Old McDebbie’s Farm set up a petting zoo in the parking lot that included guinea pigs, rabbits, goats, chickens, ducks, Patagonian cavies, sheep and a donkey.
Food and beverages were provided to people free of charge by the facility. Menu items included charcuterie skewers, soft pretzels, artichoke and ricotta cheese quiche, pigs in a blanket, potato cheese balls, along with hot chocolate and warm apple cider.
Sally Ludgate, who works at Mountlake Terrace Plaza, and her husband Pat set up their Kettle and Pop mobile kettle corn stand in the parking lot. They served up bags of fresh popcorn to people at the holiday bazaar.
Many in attendance stopped to take free pictures with Santa Claus. Each individual or group was able to have four pictures taken that were then quickly printed out so people had them before leaving the event.
Several of the vendors who set up tables at the bazaar had been recommended by residents of the facility who attended previous local craft fairs.
Carolers were onsite singing classic holiday songs, which added to the festive atmosphere Friday night.
Attendance included a mixture of residents who live at the facility, their family and/or friends who were visiting and also people from the surrounding neighborhood who stopped by the event.
Juliya Kozlova, director of sales at the senior living facility, said this was the first year they held the bazaar. “I really wanted to give our residents a family event where they could bring their family and friends,” she noted. “The only way we could do that is by having it outside and so that’s kind of where this all started from. I thought a petting zoo would be something a little different and out of the ordinary.”
“We invited the neighborhood,” she said, adding that included posting flyers around the area and also notifying people via the Mountlake Terrace Community page on Facebook. “We are thinking it will be something we do annually – it’s getting a great turnout,” Kozlova added. “We got so lucky it’s not raining today and it’s beautiful.”
— By Nathan Blackwell
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