It’s difficult to believe in many ways that I’ve been blogging for almost one year.  It’s been an incredible year of discovery and connections.

My first post on Jan. 8, 2010, was about Sebastian’s viola teacher using Tic Tac candy as a way to teach him vibrato.  I’m not sure how many people read it – that was before I had any followers, and before I learned how to track stats about the blog.  My most recent post, about my great-aunt Rosalie, was something that had been brewing in my head for a couple of years, and writing it was extremely rewarding.  It already has been viewed more than 80 times.

Overall, the blog has been viewed more than 5,000 times by people in 69 different countries.  I’ve averaged about two posts a week, which was my goal.  This post is No. 84 for the year.
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One of the saddest episodes in the life of my great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs, has to be the death of his 9-year-old daughter, Rosalie, on Christmas Eve in 1917.  Her death came less than two years after the death of little G. Oliver Jr., at age 1.

My dad and his siblings grew up hearing about Rosalie, and how their grandmother Islea was so distraught over her daughter’s death, she never again celebrated Christmas.
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Getting married between my birthday and Christmas seemed like a great idea 17 years ago.  I still like all the festivity crammed into a short period of time, but it can add a little more stress to the holiday season – more for my husband, Steve, than for me.  On the bright side, it’s easy to remember our anniversary!

Steve proposed to me on Jan. 16, 1993.  By that time, we’d been dating for almost six years, since early February of our first year at Drake University.
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I’ve attended two concerts in less than a week, with two more scheduled this Thursday.  It’s not too surprising, since it’s getting so close to Christmas.  First was the Greenvale Park Elementary winter concert on Thursday, featuring the fourth and fifth grade orchestras and choirs.  Elias is in the fourth grade choir this year, and it was fun to see him perform after hearing teaser snippets of his songs for weeks now.

December is always a crazy month for me, and I’m not sure I’ll have the chance to blog as much as I’d like.  But I did want to take a few minutes to mention a book that was reviewed yesterday in the Star Tribune.  Published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, the book is composed of letters written by two brothers from Winona, Thomas and William Christie, who fought in the Civil War.

The men were with the First Minnesota Battery, which fought at Shiloh, Corinth, Vicksburg and Atlanta.
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