HUMOR

Celebrate With Us and Win Great Prizes!

Thanks to the support of hundreds of thousands of subscribers who read our magazine each month, Arizona Highways will celebrate its 80th anniversary in April 2005. To show our appreciation, the poor old editor has devised a contest - which will appear in the April anniversary issue - to hand out some great prizes and to have a little fun. To win, answer 20 questions correctly and your name will go into a drawing for the prizes. There's nothing to buy. Here's a sample question: Which one of these is not the name of a place in the Superstition Mountains?

CONTEST RULES: In the April 2005 issue of Arizona Highways, we'll pose 20 multiple choice questions about Arizona. If you answer all questions correctly and give us your name, address and daytime phone number, we'll enter you in a drawing for the prizes listed above. The drawing will be held in May 2005. There is no obligation and nothing to buy. Certain date restrictions apply on the prizes. Winners must call for availability. Persons 18 years old or older are eligible. We can accept only one entry per person, and entries must be postmarked no later than April 30, 2005. Winners are subject to state and federal tax regulations. Employees and vendors of Arizona Highways and their immediate families are not eligible. Answers will be published in the June 2005 issue. Winners' names will be published in the September 2005 issue.

Grand Prize:

A seven-day raft trip for two on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon with ARAMARK'S Wilderness River Adventures. This trip must be taken by mid-September 2006. Included is round-trip transportation for two to Phoenix from any city America West Airlines serves. Six-night accommodations for two, including all meals, at the Rancho de los Caballeros guest ranch in Wickenburg. Or a seven-night stay for two, including meals and horseback riding, at Kay El Bar Guest Ranch in Wickenburg. Visits must be taken by May 1, 2006. Included with both prizes is round-trip transportation for two to Phoenix from any city America West Airlines serves.

Two First Prizes: Ten Other Prizes:

Coffee-table, children's, travel and other books published by Arizona Highways.

Phoenix's Heritage & Science Park Gets Festive for Holidays

FOR MANY, A DELIGHTFUL old-time Christmas would be a Victorian Christmas—one filled with greenery and fancy ornaments, surrounded by antique children's toys and every nook of the house decked to the hilt.

The closest some ever get to that traditional image is a picture in a magazine, unless you are in Phoenix in December. Then, a real Victorian Christmas can be an up-close and personal experience.

Just visit the Rosson House in the Heritage & Science Park, a two-block downtown complex of antique and modern buildings that marry a variety of family oriented activities, from a historical museum to a science museum with more than 300 interactive exhibits and a five-story theater screen.

A centerpiece of the park is one of Phoenix's only authentic Victorian homes, a three-story mansion built in 1895 by Phoenix Mayor Roland Lee Rosson, a physician who also saw patients in his at-home office. But the family moved on and their house fell into disrepair. In the early 1970s, a newspaper article bemoaned its demise, and the city bought the house in 1974. The Junior League of Phoenix took on the task of restoring it to its turn-of-the-last-century splendor.

A house that had originally taken six months and $7,500 to build took six years and $750,000 to restore, but when it was finally opened to the public, visitors could see what upscale Victorian life was really like in the early 20th century.

Just before Thanksgiving, a dozen or so guild women transform the house into a Christmas wonderland from the mountain of carefully marked Christmas boxes stored in the attic.

"We get to play," says Barbara Clayton, who has chaired the decorating committee for a decade.

But everything is authentic, thanks to hours of study at the public library. "That's why there are candles, not electric lights, on the tree," Clayton explains. "That's why there's so much greenery-greenery was the big thing in a Victorian home."

The point becomes obvious the minute you walk in the front door during the many tours offered throughout the holiday season.

The front entrance includes a curved staircase that is beautiful when unadorned, but becomes even more striking when decorated by Susan Fulsome, the docent in charge of this showpiece.

By the time her all-day project is done, there are six layers of decoration, starting with green garland and then ivy, gold beads, purple berry garlands, swags of greens with fruit and pinecones and Victorian candles.

Meanwhile, Clayton takes charge of decorating the dining room, including the green swags on the ceiling that go from each corner to the chandelier in the center. The silver is polished, the Christmas dishes are taken out of storage, the table is set as if for a grand feast.

Another group of women puts up the tree in the parlor with its hundreds of ornaments, many handmade in the Victorian tradition; upstairs,