Monet and His Modern Legacy—Special Exhibition at the Nelson Atkins Museum
Shortly before Christmas, a friend and I met at the Nelson Atkins Museum for lunch in Rozelle Court and to tour a new exhibition called “Monet and His Modern Legacy.” The Nelson Atkins Museum describes this as an exhibition “exploring Claude Monet’s transformative impact on a later generation of American artists.” In honor of Monet’s […]
New Year, New Goals—Will I Do Any Better in 2024?
In 2023, I had two primary writing goals—to publish When Heart Shall Fail (preferably in the first quarter of the year) and to draft the next (and last) book in my series on the settlement of Oregon. I published When Heart Shall Fail, but not until around Memorial Day. I did not get the next […]
Home Alone for Christmas
My husband and I spent Christmas by ourselves this year. Most of our 46 Christmases together have been whirlwinds of activity, usually with travel to one set of our parents or the other. In more recent years, one or both of our adult children have usually come to visit. But this year, our children were […]
Christmas Lights
I feel like a curmudgeon this year because our house is one of only two or three on our cul-de-sac that does not have Christmas lights on the front of the house. I like driving through the neighborhood and seeing all the lights, but I don’t want the effort (or expense—we could hire someone to […]
Buying Christmas Gifts for My Granddaughter
I’ve always been amazed by this photograph of the gifts I received on my first Christmas. Granted, we spent that holiday with my maternal grandparents, and I was their first grandchild. They doted on me. I think my grandmother bought everything in sight for me that year. But really? An eight-month-old baby doesn’t appreciate all […]
St. Nicholas Day
Today, December 6, is St. Nicholas Day, a feast day honoring St. Nicholas, a 4th-century bishop of Myra (now part of Turkey). St. Nicholas was known for his charitable deeds, particularly toward children. For centuries, St. Nicholas Day was celebrated in many countries in Europe. It was a religious feast, but also an occasion for […]
Reflecting on Anniversaries and the Days In Between
Our 46th wedding anniversary was last weekend. Number forty-six doesn’t merit much recognition, though I gave my husband a couple of Hallmark cards. We ate Thanksgiving leftovers, so I didn’t have to cook. It snowed the night before, but the weather warmed enough that no shoveling was necessary. Still, we were both happy to stay […]
Happy Thanksgiving from President Ulysses S. Grant, 1872
My current work-in-progress begins in 1872, and I recently researched what was said about Thanksgiving that year. Here is the Thanksgiving Day proclamation by President Ulysses S. Grant that year: October 11, 1872 By the President of the United States of America A ProclamationWhereas the revolution of another year has again brought the time when […]
A Festive Trip to Big Cedar Lodge
Through our forty-plus years in Kansas City, my husband and I have taken several vacations to Table Rock Lake in southern Missouri. Table Rock Lake is near Branson, Missouri, one of the nation’s preeminent entertainment destinations. From country music shows, to amusement parks, to fishing or boating, everyone is bound to find something fun to […]
Requiem for a Life, Through Artifacts
My husband sold his boat earlier this year, and I discovered that three boxes of my ancient belongings had survived in the storage unit where he kept his boat. When we vacated the storage unit, these boxes returned to our house. About fifteen years ago, my husband deposited these boxes, along with about thirty other […]