Season's Greetings

Dear friends and relatives (not mutually exclusive),

Nothing like a break of a decade or more to really warm you up for what I fondly call my Christmas card insert. At least this one doesn’t fall out of your newspaper or pop up on your computer screen.

The Staffords are still at home in Wisconsin, half of us still trying to play tennis like someone named Roger and the other half going to Pilates classes on an irregular basis. Although we both qualify for senior citizen discounts (I’m risking my life with that line), we’re still publishing our monthly KEY Milwaukee visitor guides. Neither the magazine nor our website has a retirement program. Also, in our version of universal health coverage, Beth continues to “spin” out news releases about the accomplishments of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Bringing you up to date on the family will take a slew of bullet points. Here are the “children” from the youngest on up:

• Mike Ewing is a junior studying (oh no, not again) journalism at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In his spare time, he helps us learn about the new media. He showed me how to do this, but accepts no responsibility for the content.

• Rebecca Ewing moved this month from mutual funds to corporate finance. In so doing, she moved from Milwaukee to Chicago and mom is still in mourning. She now makes the big deals you hear about on CNBC. Perhaps one day, over her lunch break, she will find a buyer for KEY Milwaukee and KeyMilwaukee.com.

• Kathy Culbertson and company live in suburban Atlanta. Son-in-law Brandon now works for Turner Broadcasting. Kathy’s e-photos update us on budding athlete Abby and sons Evan, Zach and Bennett. We’re awaiting their arrival for a big post-Christmas celebration here.

• John Stafford and daughter-in-law Tisha live in northwest Milwaukee with grandson John Jr., now four and in preschool. His hearing is just fine, and he loves to demonstrate just that at grandpa’s by “playing” the piano and harmonica.

• Haley Stafford lives in Milwaukee near the UWM campus, works downtown and, I suspect, continues to root for everything Duke except – perhaps – the lacrosse team.

• And finally, the one with whom I have been related for the longest time. Tobey Pfleger and her brood now consist of (not necessarily in the order of importance) son-in-law Eric, teenager Liesel, fun-loving Amelia, meticulous William, comedian Ellis, three dogs, three regular-sized horses, some “barn” cats, a miniature horse and her foal and a bunch of chickens. Did I mention that she still lives just north of us in an area where McMansions are sprouting like mushrooms?
As you can see, we have much for which to be thankful. Beth’s radio pal Garrison says, “the women are strong, the men are good-looking and all the children are above average.” My feeling is that all the women surrounding me are strong AND good-looking and the men are always trying to catch up.

You’ll get no travelogue this year because we didn’t do much traveling. Perhaps because of those frequent Mapquest errors, people traveled this way in 2006. They probably thought they were headed for Vegas or New York.

Even sister Jane and camera-toting brother-in-law Michael came north from southern Ohio. My baby sister is retired, another sobering thought.

The summer highlight had to be the reunion with Beth’s eight brothers and sisters “up north,” as we say in Wisconsin. We stayed in a luxurious “cottage” that brother Bill keeps up for an Illinois heiress. It was my first opportunity to observe real loons in the wild. But, enough about the relatives.

Sisters Barb and Mary and brothers-in-laws Carl and Cliff returned to Milwaukee with us. I’d booked a fishing excursion on Lake Michigan, not realizing that we had to be on the lake at 4 a.m. Seventeen King salmon later (Cliff took the prize with a 26-pounder), we declared the morning highly successful.

The interesting thing (since I’m writing this I determine what is “interesting”) is that these folks from Grants Pass, Oregon, not far from the coast, came to Milwaukee to catch salmon whose ancestors came from the Pacific. We flew them home filleted and frozen (not the sisters, the fish).

While we are planning to venture outside the Badger state and perhaps outside the U.S. in 2007, our doors are open to anyone who might be traveling this way. Just get Mapquest directions and turn them upside down. You’re sure to get here and we’ll have a brat and a beer ready for you.

Until then, the Irish say it best:

“May the sun shine gently on your face; may the rain fall soft upon your fields; may the wind be at your back; may the road rise to meet you, and may the Lord hold you in the hollow of his hand until we meet again.”

Roger (and Beth)