Drive to Seattle and take a bus. Leavenworth is lined with them during the holidays. You probably won’t be able to find parking once you’re there anyways. FWD is awesome in snow. If conditions are stable and you’re a decent driver you’ll be fine. The reason this isn’t the trip to practice driving in the snow for the first time and the reason it isn’t like the mid-west are the elevation changes. You’re going from sea level up to around 4000 ft so you won’t just hit snow if there is precipitation. You’ll most likely hit rain, freezing rain, slush, ice, black ice, frozen slush, good old fashion ice and, least of your worries, snow during an ascent or descent. Of course other drivers speeding and grabbing their brakes is the real X factor. This situation doesn’t happen everyday on the passes thru the Cascades (Stevens, Snoqualmie/Blewett) in the winter but it’s not the place you’d want to be figuring stuff out for the first time. If you take hwy 97 through Satus Pass and Wenatchee just don’t do it at night.