Bill Weller

While hustling around with your holiday shopping, you may have seen Bill Weller, the North Bend QFC store manager, as you picked out your canned goods or fruit platters. He said that store employees are invited to bring in their favorite homemade dishes for an all-day dining potluck to celebrate the festive time. Since about three-fourths of the crew will work on Christmas Eve (QFC is closed Christmas Day), “we make it a fun day,” he said. Employees get extra breaks to munch on the treats.

Jim Browning

Winding down State Route 202 into North Bend, many of you probably noticed a large wooden sign that highlights the practice of Jim Browning, DDS. A dentist for more than 30 years, he owns his own practice on Bendigo Boulevard. He said he celebrates the holidays with a “litany of parties.”

He also takes his staff out to a dinner to celebrate the holidays, usually participating in an office-wide white elephant gift exchange.

He and his family host his community Christmas party, inviting party-goers for a ride in his 1969 Ford Galaxy Convertible to look at Christmas lights around town. He serves traditional Cornish meat-and-potato pasty pies. It takes him about eight hours to make 36 of them.

There are additional stories in this week’s Valley Record.