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Last week I told you about a good friend leaving our staff here at the Press. While change is always hard to accept, I look at change as a challenge for the future.

The change I am referencing, is our new sales associate Nancy Roberts. Nancy will be assuming the majority of duties that Becky Carlson has ably filled over the years. Nancy hails from just outside of Forest Lake and has lived there forever. Living very close to here, Nancy is quite familiar with the area and most of the businesses.

Nancy has worked in the newspaper business most of her life, and we look forward to her meeting each and every advertiser that makes this paper so special.

I think Nancy is going to be a great fit for the Chisago County Press and Search, and I think advertisers will agree. Welcome aboard Nancy, we are excited to have you.

There is a really neat program going on locally. Mona Allen and her sister Maureen have been collecting t-shirts. Why t-shirts? Well, it just so happens that they turn those t-shirts into diapers, which in turn are sent to third world countries. They are sent to churches across the sea, where they distribute the diapers to mothers and adoption agencies.

There is a group of women that meet once a month to cut and sew the shirts into diapers.

Now that the first of the year is close, people start getting into organizing mode, which means cleaning out their closets.

If you have some t-shirts that you do not want or need, and are 50-100 percent cotton, size large or larger, you are encouraged to drop them off here at the Press. We will make sure they get to these great people who will turn them into diapers.

I have had a few calls here about donating exercising equipment this week. Just to quickly recap last week's article, you are encouraged to donate your good condition exercise equipment and medical equipment to the First United Methodist Church in Lindstrom. They have combined efforts with other area churches to start this wonderful program. If you have a piece of equipment you would like to donate, you are encouraged to call 651-257-4306.

My family decided to not exchange adult gifts this Christmas. Instead we opted to all get together and go to a piano concert. We bought tickets to George Winston about a month ago and have been anticipating it ever since. If you have never heard George Winston, he is a classical pianist who composes some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard.

The concert was in downtown Minneapolis so we had dinner downtown and made an evening of it. My kids have been so excited to see a concert, you would have thought it was Christmas. I think it was because they got to dress up and act all grown up.

Once in the hall, the lights dimmed and he began playing. I sat with my son who is 10 and the others had seats elsewhere. The concert had not been going for more than 15 minutes when I felt something on my shoulder. There was my boy fast asleep. I just chuckled to myself, put my arm around him and enjoyed the show.

The concert went on for close to two hours before Winston stood up, bowed to the crowd and exited. Well that woke my son, and he started to put his jacket on to leave. Less than 30 seconds later Mr. Winston comes back to the stage for an encore. My son looks at him, looks at me, looks at him and turns to me and says very loudly "I thought he said that last song was his last!". People all around us laughed when he said this. I was laughing so hard I was crying. I love kids.

I am not sure when you will be reading this, but the meaning is the same no matter. I just wanted to take a little space here to let you know how appreciative we are of you the reader.

You can't believe the feeling we get when someone references something they read in the Press or saw in the Search Shopper. In this day and age of faltering media, your readership has kept our heads up and given us a renewed sense of hope. In fact, our circulation numbers are up considerably over last year (not too bad in this economy). The reason? You the readers.

I know that sometimes we will write about issues that some people disagree with, but at the same time, I feel we give both sides of an issue a fair shake. A newspaper will never have 100 percent satisfied readers, and if it does, then odds are you are doing something wrong.

I don't mean to get so long in the tooth, but I really only have a simple message for you. I hope you have a Merry Christmas. May your Holidays be filled with joy and quality family time. And thanks for reading.

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