It is the dead of night. The old farm lies fast asleep, and everyone inside the house is sleeping, too. Everyone is sleeping. All but one... On small, silent feet the Tomten moves about in the moonlight. He peeps into cowshed and stable, storehouse and toolshed. He...

In early December, I closely monitor the southward journey of the sun, noting the point of each sunrise on the horizon. Okay, it's gotten past the birch tree. Now the leaning tree. Ah! It's caught in the clumpy trees! Then, on December 21—there it is! As far south as...

LAST TIME YOU LEARNED how grinchy we've become in celebrating Christmas  (see Part 1 below), but here's what was GOOD about Christmas Past. •   My first Notable Christmas featured chicken pox. I remember sitting on my mother's lap, totally miserable. At least she...

I've pretty much given up on Christmas. Well, let's say it has morphed into something quite different from our early Gustafson days. When I was a child, though, my  family observed a spartan Christmas-morning ritual. In many families, the kids would tear downstairs...

I'm dying. But let me quickly add, so are you. I, perhaps, sooner than you, but we just don't know, do we? Teenagers rarely think about dying, but maybe fewer of them would do crazy stuff if they got in the habit of thinking ahead. The older you get, though, the...