Celebrating Susan Von Hagen's Visit

Seated:  CK Coles, Susan Von Hagen, Sandy Lund
Standing:  Susan Neumann, Diane Kuenster, Cathi Hatch,
Sherryl Wilson, Pam Kaiser, Jan Kline

What a lovely luncheon friend Diane Kuenster hosted today for our dear friend, Susan Von Hagen, who is in town for Christmas.  Susan has lived away from Seattle for around twenty years now, so we treasure any time that we get to spend together with her.  Friends celebrating Susan's visit in addition to our hostess. Diane, included CK Coles, Jan Kline, Sheryl Wilson, Pam Kaiser, Sandy Lund, Susan Neumann and me.

Diane's house was so festive and her table was beautiful with her bright red tablecloth, her Bernardaud Nutcracker china, nutcracker napkin rings and whimsical Christmas blown glass wine glasses with a guest gift at each place setting.  The entire lunch was delicious, but the real star was the molten chocolate cake for dessert.  Yum!

Diane Kuenster with
Susan Von Hagen & Sandy Lunc

Eat straight from the oven!

We had so much fun recounting stories of some of the adventures and experiences we have shared over the years together.  We realized that we have planned several surprise parties for Susan, two of which required Diane, Susan Neumann and me to break into her house; once to "borrow" her Christmas ornaments so we could have a Christmas tree decorating party as a surprise housewarming party for she and John which included accidentally taking the box of old non-working Christmas tree lights that Gordon Kuenster and John Fluke had to spend hours to get them working again.  And another time for her fortieth birthday, we had to break in once again and go through her closets (this time with John's blessing) to choose an outfit for her to change into at her surprise birthday party at  the Salish Lodge and Spa at Snoqualmie Falls.

We also recalled and laughed about the sticky from bow to stern Mai Tai stories of the boatwarming party we hosted many years ago on our boat, "The StarSpirit" that we shared and our less than graceful docking at the Seattle Yacht Club that afternoon.

We can't wait for Susan to come back to visit so we can take up again right where we left off.  She remembers most of our stories and we look forward to making some new stories together as well.