To the Editor:
I just wanted to send you a quick email and thank you for the wonderfully written article in the Victoria Gazette last month about Jim and Barbara Carlson.  I noticed the pictures first and realized that we attend the same church.
Thank you for sharing their wonder-ful story with the community.  It was a beautiful story about beautiful people.  So many times these days, you open the paper to find stories that are depressing or bear no relevance to real life.  This story not only makes you feel good, it makes you proud to live in small communities where the local paper never fails to deliv-er the stories that touch your heart.
Thank you and God bless you this Christmas.
Kelli Gavin
Carver, Minnesota

To the Editor:
Hi, Claire.  Charlie is feeling better, although still very tired.  He wants you to know he has lost weight, according to the contract.  (There's nothing wrong with his appetite, however.)
I'm not sure he's up to writing a column this month.  He thinks he can, and wants to very much, because the association with you and the Gazette is very important to him. 
So, just in case, greet everyone for him, and ask Aunt Prudence to save a few cookies, preferably chocolate.  And Merry Christmas to all.
Love,
Hope
Cumberland, Wisconsin

To the Editor:
I love your stories with pictures in Sue's Album.  I laughed out loud at the picture where it says, "Most people eat popcorn during movies.  Addie does calisthenics," and she's on the table.  I bet Jenny loved seeing what Addie was doing at your house while she was in the hospital having Gunnar.  Thanks, Sue.
Deanna Lind

To the Editor:
This kind of thing never happens.  A guy calls and says, "Janie, I danced with you at National Speaker's Association in 1985 and I want to do a story on your life."  He says he is the photographer for the Vikings, did hundreds of speeches for Rich Tiller, is here in Minneapolis, remembered me, and wants to do my life.
I say, "I don't look like 1985 and I'm not so sure I would be that interesting."
He heads out to my house, films me for two hours, ask questions, and leaves.  I send a pile of video broadcast quality tapes to him along with NSA 1985 speech, Washington D.C. (the speech that made me), and think, "Well, now it is in God's hands."
Two days later he has the story together, plays it over the phone, and it aired for three and a half minutes on December 23^rd.  Me with a Christmas book and he has a show completed.
So in the piece, it is all there - our NSA founder hugging me, people, speeches, me, my parents, the book, the signings, the snow, the pines, and life, all 65 years of it.
Happy Christmas!  Happy Speaking. Go to www.kstp.com to see the big story.  Check it out.  Scroll down to Full Story Local Talker.  It is my life, video stream.
Janie Jasin
Victoria, Minnesota