There are so many things I could and should write about celebrating Christmas in Madison with Dad, Sonja, and the whole crew from Decorah. . . Fun and delight with Aidan, Anna and Kaj, who are just wonderful to be with - a chance to catch up with Nathan after way too long - two
How’s that for an attention-grabbing headline? We have been hosting Kathy’s Aunt Linda since Sunday night, and although we have been enjoying playing games, reminiscing, shopping, and eating together, we were most excited about a special outing which Kathy cooked up for last night. . . but which she wanted to remain a surprise to
Saturday morning was the funeral of my friend Playford Thorsen, and it’s strange how you can fully expect something to occur and yet be utterly unprepared for it. Three and a half years ago, Playford was diagnosed with ALS - so his death last week should not have been a surprise at all. And yet,
Christmas Day was four whole days ago, and it seems like it was a month ago because of all that has happened since, but I can still conjure up all kinds of delicious memories (some literally delicious, others figuratively delicious) *There was the deliciousness of SLEEPING IN, at least a little bit, after a long
Kathy and I had an unexpected adventure Friday night, the 26th, when we took our friends the Barrows down to Waukegan, Illinois for a meal at Sweet Tomatoes (a marvelous buffet place I have blogged about before.) It was a slow and sloppy trip down there, thanks to heavy rain and even heavier fog, but
It was a wonderful Christmas Eve, from the hustle and bustle of last minute shopping, to delicious dinner at our house with Kathy’s family, to two meaningful church services at Holy Communion, complete with great music, to getting the snow blower started after a whole day of failure. But I think it’s safe to say
Last night was our annual Christmas caroling outing - postponed from Sunday afternoon because of the bitter cold- and I am so glad we waited. It proved to be a perfect night to be out and about, with gentle snowfall, no wind, and temperatures that made it feel like Wisconsin rather than Antarctica. (There’s something
One of the best things about my responsibilities as host of WGTD’s Morning Show is that I get to utter sentences such as “that reminds me of something Maya Angelou told me the other day. . .” It isn’t that the interviews I do with luminaries of that magnitude are my favorite interviews; they tend
It used to bewilder me that so many people who have lived all of their lives in the heartland of the country would choose, upon retirement, to uproot themselves from all of the goodness they had known here and transplant themselves to places like to Florida, California or Arizona- presumably for a life of golf
Most of us have special traditions in our lives which most emphatically usher in the Christmas holidays (or whatever holiday it is that we celebrate this time of year.) Kathy and I have several of them, including the Christmas Festival at Carthage - the sing along Messiah - our annual caroling expedition with family and
