One day last October, Ted and I were cleaning and doing the laundry. As I passed the front door, I noticed two people–a man and a woman–walking away from the door. Their car was parked directly in front of our house, as if intentionally–not like the canvassers who park out of sight and then troll the street. Thinking they might have car trouble or need help, I opened the door and called to them, asking if I could help in any way. They laughed and said, “No, we know your son, and he suggested we stop in to say ‘hello’ to you.” They had rung the doorbell, but with the vacuum cleaner running, we hadn’t heard it. Luckily, I passed the front door and saw them before they left.

We introduced ourselves to each other and I chatted with them for a few minutes, then asked if they’d like to meet Ted as well. They enthusiastically said “yes,” so I went to the house and called to Ted. The four of us continued talking with each other and none of us seemed ready to part, so I invited them inside. We enjoyed each other’s company so much that they stayed at least another hour, and we made plans to get together again soon.

The backstory is that Jeff and La are currently serving a mission for their church. While they were attending mission training last spring, they met Mike and Mary Jane (our visitors), who were assigned to a mission in the St. Louis area. At that time, Jeff told them we lived in the St. Louis area, but he didn’t tell us to expect visitors, so meeting them was a happy surprise for us. Before they left, we took a group photo. Here you can see me, Ted, Mary Jane, and Mike.

Mike and Mary Jane asked for suggestions about things to see while they are in St. Louis. One of the places we mentioned was The Hill–an Italian community in the city, well-known for its Italian grocery stores and restaurants. It’s the birthplace of Joe DiMaggio, Joe Garagiola, Yogi Berra, and Jack Buck–three major league baseball players and a baseball broadcaster–who grew up together on The Hill and were all inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. We met at Mama’s on the Hill for dinner and had another wonderful time together. It was even better than our first visit, so we decided to meet again.

Mike and Mary Jane invited us to their home for dinner and introduced us to two other missionaries who lived in the same apartment building. The six of us talked nonstop for at least three hours, and Mary Jane commented to me that “We’ve become fast friends in a hurry, haven’t we?” I agreed.

Another of our suggestions for things to do in the area was to visit Historic Main Street in St. Charles (close to our home) during the holiday season to see the lights and decorations. Their daughter came for a holiday visit and the three of them planned to go to Main Street. We invited them for dinner at our house after they finished viewing the holiday decorations. We also invited Kari’s family, but the guys were all working, so only Kari could join us. It was fun for Mike and Mary Jane and for us to meet one of each other’s children–in this case, daughters. It was a small holiday get-together with friends and family members, and we celebrated with Christmas candy and cookies for dessert.

The downside of this friendship is that in May, Mike and Mary Jane’s St. Louis mission will be finished and they will be returning home to the Salt Lake City area. We will still be here. Luckily, we have grandchildren in the SLC area, so there’s a possibility of the four of us getting together again when we visit our grandchildren, and we’ve all expressed a strong desire to keep in touch with each other.

You never know what’s going to happen in your day. One day, a few months ago, we unexpectedly made new friends.

Ted and I always enjoy walking on Historic Main Street in St. Charles when the holiday lights and decorations are on display from Thanksgiving until New Year’s. We didn’t have time to do this before Christmas, so we went on the Saturday after Christmas. The lights and decorations were still there, but the international Christmas characters, the carolers, and the drum and fife corps no longer perform after Christmas Eve, when a parade sends Santa on his way to deliver gifts to all the good boys and girls.

In winter, the sun sets early enough that the lights are pretty by 4:30 p.m., so that’s when we went. We discovered an advantage to being there on a Saturday winter evening: the shops were open until 9:00 and we could see their merchandise through the windows. We regularly shop at several stores in this area, but we haven’t been in all of them, so it was fun to see what they sell and to make plans to visit some new places the next time we go to Main Street.

The boutique shops on Historic Main Street are all in old houses–some dating back to the 1600s–and people live on the upper level of many of the shops. I think every single shop had decorations and/or holiday lights.

The trees along the street were also decorated, making this a pretty place to walk on a beautiful winter evening. You can tell by the number of parked cars that we were a small part of the crowd looking at the lights–even after Christmas! I was lucky to find a parking spot. (Someone left, so I pulled in.)

The downtown parks had Christmas lights in the trees.

The trees in Frontier Park at the Missouri River glowed with holiday lights along the Katy Trail (foreground).

This tree had a small sleigh and presented a cute photo op for the parents of this little boy.

St. Charles apparently keeps and re-uses its decorations for many years. In 2017, the same sleigh was placed beside a tree along the riverfront in Frontier Park. Our family group attended the Christmas Eve parade that year and I took a photo of Dylan pretending to pull the sleigh, Sky holding the pretend reins, and Teddy along for the ride.

As always, Christmas is special whenever it’s celebrated with family and friends. Kathy and Annette arrived on the afternoon of the 23rd and stayed at our house. Dean and Dylan had to work that day, but Kari and Theo joined us for the afternoon and dinner. I served baked potato soup–winter comfort food–with Cherries on a Cloud for dessert. The photo shows the entire dessert, not one serving–it’s large enough to cut into twelve pieces. (It’s a baked meringue shell with a marshmallow / cream cheese / whipped cream filling, topped with cherries.)

Kari’s family hosted us for the family Christmas celebration. Sky and Adelle were able to come from Rockford, IL to celebrate Christmas with our family on Christmas Eve and with Adelle’s family (nearby) on Christmas Day. Dean had a cozy fire in the family room, and everyone shifted from room to room throughout the afternoon and evening, forming a variety of interesting conversational groups.

With ten of us, there were a lot of presents under the tree. (Note the unique tree topper.)

For dinner, Kari prepared a family favorite that we describe as “ham dinner.” It includes baked ham, mashed potatoes with delicious ham gravy, green beans, and Waldorf salad. I made a marshmallow and whipped cream torte with a chocolate crumb crust for dessert.

After dinner, it was time to open the gifts. (Some of us had colds and others didn’t want to catch a cold, thus the masks.)

Even the cat(s) had some gifts. You can see the milk carton cat bed in the photo. The cat looks cautious because it is watching a wind-up toy move around in unpredictable patterns and the cat isn’t sure what to do about it.

The next morning (Christmas Day), Kathy and Annette went to Columbia to celebrate the holiday with Annette’s son, and the rest of us relaxed. Everyone at Kari’s house was busy with individual activities for a while in the afternoon, so Kari came over to spend a little time with us. Naturally, we talked about how nice the family Christmas had been. In the evening, Ted and I settled in for a movie with a Christmas cookie snack. A good time was had by all during this special season. Merry Christmas!

With Thanksgiving falling as late as possible this year, Christmas arrived in a hurry. Even worse, we had a major weather change in early December, which sometimes triggers laryngitis for me. This time, I had an unusually bad case and felt terrible for a week, setting our Christmas preparations behind schedule. As a result, the only community holiday event we attended before Christmas was the Holiday Brass Concert at a church in St. Louis County.

I attended the concert with a friend last year and it was so good, I wanted Ted to hear it this year. It’s presented by the International Women’s Brass Conference and includes brass and percussion instruments. The IWBC presents four performances each December in the Manchester United Methodist Church. The church seats 1,200 people, and all four concerts sell out every year. Ted and I bought our Dec. 2 tickets in early June as soon as they went on sale. The concert is indescribable. No photos were allowed, so I’m going to describe some of the concert highlights, but words cannot begin to do justice to the experience.

The church is beautifully decorated for Christmas and has excellent acoustics, both of which greatly contribute to the experience. There is a large balcony above the sanctuary, flanked by a smaller balcony on each side, as well as a large balcony above the rear of the nave. An outstanding choir I estimated at around 80-100 members performs in the back of the sanctuary, and musical pieces are performed in the aisles, along the side walls, and in the corners of the nave, as well as in all the balconies. In addition to every variety of brass instrument, there are marimbas, alphorns, bagpipes, a piano, and soloists. A sign language interpreter is present during vocal musical pieces.

Except for the final selection, the entire group of musicians does not perform simultaneously in a concert-style seating arrangement, nor do they always perform in the front of the nave. Selections are performed by smaller ensembles of 4-12 musicians at a time, with individual musicians participating in multiple ensemble combinations. While one ensemble performs somewhere in the building–sometimes vocally, sometimes instrumentally–the next moves silently and invisibly into place at another station. As soon as the first ensemble finishes, there is time for brief applause before the next ensemble begins. With each musical selection followed by a piece performed in a different area of the nave, the music seems to surround the audience. The variety of ensembles and performance locations is a highlight of this concert.

The selections and the quality of music are impressive. Four alphorns played “Silent Night”–two in the front balcony and one on each side of the rear balcony; the bagpipers played as they came down the center aisle; for one song, the choir entered from the rear and spread along the two side walls.

Even a video would not capture the experience of this holiday concert. The best I can offer visually is a picture of a man in Halifax, NS playing an alphorn. Even so, his alphorn is white, not brass-colored. An alphorn varies from 9.5-13.0 feet long and, at full volume, can be heard over several kilometers. (A friend of mine knows an alphorn player and asked him if the instrument comes apart for transporting it. The answer is that there is a case for it, but it does not come apart.) Imagine one of these horns playing from each of four balcony corners simultaneously. Awesome!

Ted and I have already marked our calendar to order our tickets in early June for next year’s IWBC Holiday Brass Concert.

While Ted and I were shopping for holiday items, I saw this red dress at Penney’s. It was so-o-o-o tempting to buy it and shock the family by wearing it to our family Christmas gathering, but I resisted and left it for someone else.

I had a Barnes & Noble gift certificate from Kari and Dean burning a hole in my purse, so I went to the store’s big Christmas sale to spend the gift card, getting two books for the price of one.

While I was there, I saw this display. Someone needs to pay attention. The sign says “One-of-a-Kind Gifts” but there are numerous identical items on display. That’s not what “one” means.

It’s the Christmas season, so I’m displaying my Christmas Lego collection–a traditional exchange Thom and I have had since he was old enough to buy a few Christmas presents with his allowance. The tradition continues. The snowman with the red hat in the right corner is this year’s item from Thom.

Have you ever seen a mini puzzle with pieces like this? Kathy and Annette found one for me.

I always enjoy all the Christmas decorations and traditions. Merry Christmas to all.