Huber

Funeral Home & Cremation Services

952-474-9595

Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinic.

Occupational Therapy.  Speech Therapy.

952-443-9888

Victoria’s Corner Bar.  Nightly Specials and Menus.  952-443-9944

Weinzierl

Jewelers

8 First Street in Waconia.  952-442-2885

MVT Excavating

No job is too small.  952-446-9341

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in the Victoria Gazette. 

Located at www.VictoriaGazette.com.

Specialized assisted living for those

with memory challenges. 

Victoria.  952-908-2215

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The Victoria

GAZETTE

         Our first day of snow here on Lilac Lane in Victoria, following our warm and winsome days of summer in this City of Lakes and Parks, was Saturday, November 19th, 2011.  Don't know why I've got a penchant to chronicle things in this little corner of the world but that's just the way it is. 

         In any case, as you too probably noticed, the snow made a sudden change in atmosphere and activity both inside and outside.  We suddenly drove more slowly, stepped more carefully, dressed more warmly, and thought more futurely, especially about Christmas and home and hearth.  In Minnesota, we cannot think upon Christmas too really until we've seen and touched snow.

***

         The Mall of America may not be everybody's cup of Christmas tea, but it's surely mine -- even when we have to park on the top level of the nearly eternal ramp because thousands of other shoppers took over all the lower parking  spaces. 

         The Mall is always exciting and energizing to me.  I love the giant Christmas trees, the millions of lights, the millions of people, the millions of gifts that come out special for Christmas.  It's like being a child in Wonderland.  Doesn't everyone want to be a child in Wonderland for a time?

***

         We attended a funeral last week down in Lakeville for Madeline Buesing, age 94.  She was a friend of my mother's for the last 65 years, from the days when they were both having babies and struggling to make a go of it, but for these past many years their only contact with each other was the annual Christmas card and letter. 

         Our families came to know each other because of our parents' occasional back and forth visiting across the miles when we were children and so I'd read Madeline's Christmas letters and catch up on some of the news of her children.

         I've probably seen those kids only twice in the last 50 years and yet, at the funeral, after recognition and introductions, there were hugs that squeezed the old days right up to the surface.

         I actually know little to nothing about the lives of Madeline's children, their marriages, their work, their joys and sorrows -- and so it wouldn't be correct to say that we are friends, and yet we are not strangers because of our mothers and maybe a dozen family dinners and picnics together when we were children.  I wonder if the English language has a perfect word that defines such a relationship.  I'm reminded here of the song, "Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?"

***

         And so you might be wondering how is my mother, age 84, after her open heart surgery on October 21st.  It took about four weeks for her to "turn a new leaf," as she says.  The new leaf meant a noticeable difference for the better.  Amazing how a body can be both hurt and healed and an autumn leaf can make room for holly with red berries at Christmas time.

***

         I enjoy cooking and I do not enjoy baking.  A cook can be creative with ingredients in the frig or on the shelf whereas a baker better be careful to follow a recipe pretty exactly or trouble shows up in the tasting.

         It happened to me on Thanksgiving Day and I didn't know it until I served up my homemade pumpkin pies.  The first hint of a problem arose when Gunnar said, "Grandma, I need a glass of water." 

         Then Jenny asked, "Mom did you make your own pumpkin pie spice or did you get it from a jar labeled Pumpkin Pie Spice"?  Allan said, "Hey, Sue, did you put pepper in this pie?"  Only Gunnar asked for seconds of "spicy pumpkin pie with lots of extra whipping cream."  He even took a pie home.  What a kid.

***

         I haven't lost my touch with babies, or so it seems according to the Thanksgiving overnights at Grandma Sue's house.  When Mia woke up crying in the dark, I scrambled to Nick's room, scooped her out of bed, and carried her downstairs where I changed her diaper and filled her sippy cup with milk, which she promptly downed.

         Then I wrapped her up close to me and we snuggled on the couch in front of the fireplace in our living room.  I'd say Mia was back to sleep in less than ten minutes.  And then what did Grandma Sue do?  She snuck down to her office to put some finishing touches on this Christmas issue of the Gazette.

***

          And now I get to put up our Christmas tree, decorate our home, and do some real shopping.  One evening I'll work on Christmas cards and update the address list.  I'll probably have to sit at the piano for a while and review the music for our Christmas Concert, and then I'll sit on the porch alone or with Allan, tree lights glistening everywhere and the Vienna Boys Choir and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir softly filling all the in-between places of mind and heart.  Hope your Christmas spaces are also filled with good things.

December 2011

In-Town Auto Repair  952-443-2868

942-443-2078

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