Here are some of my favorite Northern California Christmas towns

 Hi everyone, since the Christmas season is underway, I thought it would be good to write a list of what the best Christmas towns are in my local area. 

5. Sutter Creek

Sutter Creek is a small country Gold Rush town in Amador County with a historic quaint main street, lined and graced with Christmas decorations. Instead of hosting Black Friday, the town celebrates Plaid Friday where people celebrate the shopping day in plaid clothing. They also hold the Parade of Lights with floats and marching bands passing through the main street.

4. Truckee

This town is a treat, being in the mountains that receive 405 inches of snow and the town receiving 107 inches of snow and nestled in the pine forests of the Sierra Nevada, it feels like walking in a winter wonderland. Even though the town in my opinion has a small amount of Christmas décor, there are many things in this town that make it a Christmas town. It has the railroad and the trains running through town and stopping at the depot in town. It has snow. It has the small-town main street with shops and restaurants. It has ski resorts and their villages up the hill. Many of the ingredients to be a quality candidate for a Hallmark Christmas movie.

    3. Placerville

 This town celebrates Christmas with the annual Christmas Festival of Lights (now Hometown Holidays) on Black Friday where the town gathers for the annual tree lighting in town square and even a Christmas tree trail along the highway. This helps promote the Christmas tree farm business up the hill which is benefited by the abundance of ponderosa pines and the favorable climate for Christmas trees. And another thing, many of these Christmas tree farms are near Apple Hill, which is a huge destination especially during the fall. Placerville also hosts the Hangtown Christmas parade a couple weeks after the event with floats and marching bands passing through the main street. And the late Thomas Kinkade who was known to paint many Christmas scenes resided in Placerville in his lifetime.      

   2. Grass Valley

My favorite things about this town are its historical main street with many small businesses and even an operating downtown movie theater. Even better, the town recently converted their street to a pedestrian mall. And they have decorated it beautifully for Christmas with a large Christmas tree, ornaments, and nutcrackers gracing the entrance to the town.

1. Nevada City

This town is where the movie Christmas Card took place. The preserved historical buildings and the surrounding pine trees make the town the ideal picturesque Christmas town. Which is no surprise that the town hosts the annual Victorian Christmas every December, when the streets are lined with street vendors and people dressed up in Victorian Christmas attire. It is only up the hill from Grass Valley.

Runner ups:

Folsom:

Folsom’s main street Sutter Street has a surprisingly strong display of Christmas décor with beautiful Christmas lights, a seasonal ice rink, and even a year round Christmas store in town, Dorothea’s Shoppe. The town also has the Palladio at Broadstone which has a beautiful Christmas tree anchoring the center for the season, and there are neighborhoods in town that go all out with Christmas lights and displays, such as the Ledgemont Court near Folsom Lake College.

Town Center El Dorado Hills:

Town Center El Dorado Hills, despite being in suburban El Dorado Hills, is a fun main street to walk around. The shopping center is going all out for Christmas by their Elf on the Boulevard, which is a fun scavenger hunt. I participated in this activity a couple weeks ago and it was fun searching around all the local businesses in the center looking for the elves lurking in the corners. I hope you can come check it out this season.

I hope you enjoyed reading this list on Christmas towns and maybe you are inspired to make a trip of your own. Also, please check out my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@haydenlepore3924/videos. Please like and subscribe to that channel if you enjoyed watching my videos. Thank you for reading. 

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

My visit to a new Mimosa restaurant

 

    I finally tried out the new Rey Mimosa restaurant in Cameron Park. It has only been open for 7 months, having opened in April of 2023. My mom and I tried this restaurant for lunch when my dad was out doing something with a friend. My mom and I ate the burgers and the tater tots, which seemed like plenty of food and the food tasted really good at a fairly reasonable price for a sit down burger restaurant, $13.00. 

Now to the facts. It is located at 3300 Coach Ln Suite D8, Cameron Park, CA 95682.  They serve their unique Mexican Inspired Breakfast dishes to the traditional breakfast staples such as Steak, Eggs which include Omelets and Skillets, French Toast, and Crepes. And the traditional mimosa staple Benedicts. And for lunch they serve Burgers and Sandwiches. And for drinks they serve you guessed it, Mimosas. And if you aren't into the Mimosa scene, they serve beer. They do not serve dinner, since they are only open from 7am to 3pm, 7 days a week. 

I hope you can visit this place sometime while you are in Cameron Park. Thank you for reading my blogpost and God bless!!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Revealing one of Christian music’s best kept secrets

 

Some albums from the ApologetiX: that Christian parody band

When you think of Christian music, the type of music coming to your mind is usually contemporary worship and praise music, usually with a softer guitar sound. When you turn on the Christian radio station, bands you will likely hear are MercyMe, Casting Crowns, Stephen Curtis Chapman, the Newsboys, and Phil Wickam to name a few. But there is a group of artists you have likely not heard on the Christian radio. In fact, they sound more like the songs commonly played in secular circles. The songs you love to hear and prefer to listen to more than most Christian music, but you know you shouldn’t listen to. In fact, this band bridges the gap between secular music and Christian music. Actually, they write their own parodies of these secular songs. Making the songs you love to hear on the radio and replacing those ungodly lyrics with wholesome and God honoring lyrics. They have done parodies of artists from every genre of music, from country to classic rock, from heavy metal to pop, and from the oldies to today’s tunes. The ApologetiX is their name. The band comprises of J. Jackson as the lead singer, Wayne Bartley and Tom Tincha both on the guitar, Keith Hayne on bass guitar, Jimmy Vegas Tanner on the drums, and Rich Mannion on the keyboard. The band started in 1992 and are celebrating their 31st anniversary this year.

The ApologetiX in their early years in front of the now closed Paradise Club. This was when the band consisted of J. Jackson (the lead singer, still in the band today) , Karl Messner (on lead guitar, retired from the band in 2007. Tom Tincha now fills that role), Andy Sparks (on bass guitar, retired from band in 1994. Keith Haynie has played that role since 1995), and Rick Servocky (on drums, retired sometime in 1994. ApologetiX has gone through many drummers in their history. Jeff Pakula from 1992–1993. Rick Servocky from 1993-1994, Bob Flathearty from 1995–1997, Fred Behanna from 1998–2001, Bill Rieger from 2001–2006, and Jimmy Vegas Tanner from 2006-present.)

The band is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and originally consisted of J. Jackson on lead, still is today, Karl Messner on lead guitar, Jerry Hayostek on bass, Jeff Pakula on bass, and Andy Sparks as rhythm guitarist. They started their career at the now closed and demolished Paradise Club in Irwin, Pennsylvania. Hence, their parody of the Styx song AD 1928/Rockin’ the Paradise they called AD 1992/Rockin’ the Paradise Club, which is on the Rare Not Well Done Volume 2 download. It was originally on their Get Your Wigs cassette, which sadly has never been released on CD or on any streaming service, or even their own USB drive, which is the case for two other cassettes they released, Parable Guy and Want It Dead or Alive. You can’t even purchase the cassette from a used online store. Fortunately, they did release the song mentioned from that cassette along with 6 others including their humorous parody of Old Time Rock n Roll called Not Named Job. 3 songs came from their Want It Dead or Alive cassette, but sadly none from their Parable Guy cassette, even though they eventually redid the Parable Guy song, a parody of Don McLean’s American Pie, 6 years later on their Jesus Christ Morningstar CD and they have redone many of the songs which were on the Parable Guy cassette and on many of their albums which were on cassette, which were from 1992–1997.

ApologetiX at their most recent concert in October of 2017. They have interestingly stopped touring to focus on making more new parodies and redoing old parodies. This is why they have ramped up production on new albums, four a year most recently. This photo is of the current band members except for the one on the right on the piano, Chris VonBartheld who sadly passed away in 2021.

My brother and I grew up listening to their parodies of these rock n roll songs and often hearing their parodies of these songs before I heard the original. I may have heard about the original because the ApologetiX did a parody on that song. I think in many ways, this was the way rock n roll music is even played inside our house. My family and I had the privilege of seeing the ApologetiX on both of our trips to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, once in 2013 at the Calvary Church in Irwin, not far from the former Paradise Club and their 25th Anniversary at the New Community Church in Wexford, Pennsylvania, which were both a fun experience attending. And I still love listening to them today. In fact, I am probably listening to ApologetiX as I am writing this. If I am not I may be listening to Petra, the other Christian rock n roll band, which is surprisingly much more famous. But not nearly as unique because they created their own songs and didn’t parody rock n roll songs.

You can buy most of their music from after 1992, except for their live cassette recordings in 1995 and 1996, on their website, whether through their CD copies (some of them you might have to buy on Ebay or Amazon because they stopped selling their albums prior to 2007 on their website, which is a bummer because these are some of their best albums. You can still buy the downloads of those albums fortunately), or if you don’t listen to CDs anymore you can download their albums onto your computer. If you want all their music, they created a USB drive with all of their music on it on the albums they display on their website. Here is their website for more information about the band if you want to buy an album from them or you are first learning about them: http://apologetix.com/index.php.

Before I leave, I would like to pay tribute to one of my favorite music albums from them. This year is actually the 30th anniversary of the release of their first mass produced album, Isn’t Wasn’t Ain’t. If you haven’t heard it before, it is a fun cassette quality rendition of many of your favorite rock n roll songs (ApologetiX’s parodies are in parentheses). Livin Loving Maid by Led Zepplin (Isn’t Wasn’t Ain’t) , Signs by Tesla (Lions) , Help Me Rhonda by the Beach Boys (Help Me Rhoda), and Listen to the Music by the Doobie Brothers (Christians Doin Music) are some of the songs they parodied on this album. This wasn’t the first album I bought from the ApologetiX. In fact, buying that CD was one of the takeaways from attending the Irwin concert, which was an experience of itself. That concert only had ten people show up and the only reason they held that concert was because they had devoted fans from California show up that really wanted to hear them sing. And the grace and intervention of God. Which is how they still manage to sing to this day, despite many hiccups on the road and I hope they can continue to serve God through this ministry of singing for years to come.

Music

Rock And Roll

Christianity

Apologetics

Christian Music

There's a new glassblower in town

2B Glass, known for their Glass Pumpkin Patch events at Apple Hill and in Folsom, has moved their studio and factory to Cameron Park. It opened on November 11th 2023 and is the only glass blowing studio in El Dorado County. The owners are brothers Aaron and Tate Bezdek, and Ash Koss, which actually have been doing this business for 7 years as an online operation and Tate started glassblowing when he took a class at age 17 and then worked at a glass factory in the Bay Area which Aaron later worked at. They originally did the business at the brother's mom's property in Orangevale. From what I learned from talking with Aaron, he told me that it is important to not be attached to any of these sculptures because they are delicate and that the process is unpredictable, telling me the example of someone's sculpture exploding after an hour of creating it. You never know. But he believes it is still a good hobby to try out, as evidenced by his continual work in this field. I was amazed to visit this place because it reminds me of another place I visited about a year ago to this date called the Chaos Glassworks store in historic Sutter Creek 30 miles down the road, which I thought was amazing and unique. But I was surprised to read in the Village Life about a place that opened that is just like that place I visited in my own community. And it seems like a very unlikely place to operate in, a suburban industrial park. But I think it is really cool that exurban Cameron Park has been able to land some fun and unique mom and pop businesses in the past few years, such as the Moonraker Brewery, Willow+Oak Laser Designs, and the Book House on the north side of the community. I have been used to just seeing these business operate in historical main street areas, which the community unfortunately lacks. But it is humbling that despite that, there is still a strong small business scene in the community, which I hope you can support!!

The studio is open Tues-Sat 10am to 6pm. 

2B Glass specializes in creating glassblown Pumpkin patches, along with glassblown ornaments, cups, bowls, balls, dressing containers, and even glass straws. 

Their mission is to provide a gathering place for the community where people can learn, watch the glassblowing process, and even host special events. 

              For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.                                                John 3:16

I hope you enjoyed reading this blogpost and God bless!!

You'll love this new hangout to the moon and back

 

A new restaurant and brewery recently opened in my community, Cameron Park, California. It is called the Moonraker Millhouse which is located at 3501 Robin Ln, Cameron Park, CA 95682 a few blocks behind Wally's Pizza Bar. The new restaurant has been open since May of 2023, which I was surprised to learn because I first saw this restaurant in October. And I was surprised to learn how large and how popular this restaurant is. I honestly was expecting it to be a brewery in an industrial building. But it also includes a restaurant built in their own new beautiful building and have a large patio outside. And when I visited for a party, I was amazed to see how many people were visiting this place and it seems like the new hot-spot of Cameron Park, in my own opinion. It was so busy that even though there were plenty of tables to sit at, the wait times were up to an hour for food, so I wasn't able to dine in at this restaurant in my visit unfortunately. But I hope to visit again sometime soon. From my visit, it seems a great place to have a special event, a wedding, an anniversary party, or just a great place to hang out with friends. Anyways, The restaurant serves Soups and Salads, Burgers, Pizza, and have their own brewery. The Moonraker has another brewery in Auburn near the Airport there, which opened in 2016. Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed learning about this new business and I hope you can visit them when you are in the neighborhood. Please let me know how their burgers or pizza tastes. Thank you and God bless!!

              For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.                                                John 3:16