Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and for those of you who are traveling, safe travel. It is pretty quiet here. We got up too early. What’s new? We went to Midnight Mass and Abby went with us for a nice treat. Lots of singing and a fitting way to begin Christmas. We normally have a breakfast with friends after Mass, but did not this year. Yummy! So, we got to bed around 1:30 AM in place of 3:00 or so. We have no news about a new grandbaby from Tricia. Looks like it will be born sometime on the 26th. We are waiting for a call anytime, though, as it could be anytime. We had the Protzmans over for dinner of Rose Ann’s traditional cheese chowder. Beth and Ben recommended we watch the special “Christmas at Belmont” last night on PBS and it was a wonderful show. American Idol finalist from Nashville, Melinda Doolittle, was the host for the show and she is a good singer and a favorite of ours. The Protzman family are coming over for Christmas lunch/dinner today around 1:00. We got a little surprise this week when we received a card from Keith & Becky Fortie. Keith was the Personnel Manager at the JCPenney store we opened together in Sioux Falls years ago. I was the Operations Manager. I then sent them our letter and some pictures Mother has kept of the store grand opening at the Empire Mall in Sioux Falls. They have retired and built a home in the Utah mountains and we will go visit them sometime. We got lots of cards and Christmas letters this year and it is so good to catch up with our friends and their activities. I know Christmas letters sometimes get bashed, we love them. I hope I did not get to windy with ours this year. In the paper this morning there were some very good editorials, one from a Priest friend of ours, Fr. Steve Boes. We wish you all a wonderful Christmas.

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself...
~Norman Wesley Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas," 1976