We drove in at midnight. The little town of 34,000 was asleep and the Christmas lights and glistening snow made it magical. The people, the concert, the after-party, it was all just as wonderful as we remembered it from last year. Ann (the music director at St. Francis) pulled off an amazing event once again. Thank you.

We stayed with Barb and Dick again, who made us an amazing brunch before we had to leave. As we sat down, Dick came around me and placed his hand next to my plate hiding something in it. He said: “You mentioned the story of your golden walnut last night…” he slowly released two walnuts painted with golden paint onto the white tablecloth: “so I painted these for you last night after the concert…” Trully, a pound of pure gold would not have made me more grateful than this 82 year old man’s gift.

I have been wanting to do an All-Croatian Christmas concert for a few years now… Finally this year, I got to do a few - in Pittsburg, Cleveland, Youngstown, Chicago and Milwaukee…

At Blessed Alojzije Stepinac in Chicago, the young singers and tamburica orchestra joined me.  I was so sad my boys missed this amazing event…

I now know what my wish for Christmas and New Year’s is - to finally make that CD with Croatian songs I have been talking and dreaming about…

The boys learned about Jim Davis and made their own Garfield drawings. Our boys get to do so many cool things and learn so much thanks to amazing people we meet as we travel.

Tajci www.idobelieve.com

Not too bad of a kick off. After a really nice Thanksgiving with Grandparents in Kokomo, IN the boys got a chance to play at the Garfield children’s museum in Muncie, IN while the rest of the crew were setting up for the concert.

Tajci www.idobelieve.com

It was snowing in Denver when we left after the afternoon concert. My Dad drove all night some 1100 miles through Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana never getting off of I-70 (in Indianapolis we got on I-74 to Cincinnati). My Mom says, with such a nice straight road, if it was Germany we’d be home in 1/2 the time.

Dante www.idobelieve.com

Dear Mrs. Berger

We just drove all night from Denver CO to Indianpolis IN. We drove across three states (Kansas, Missouri & Illinois) and are working on the fourth. I am very excited to see you - tell the class I said Hi!

Dante

… And it doesn’t cost a penny. It’s there for us. We just have to stop and enjoy.

Off the road in Idaho Springs, CO.

Yesterday we went  to Mt. Rushmore and we saw it up close.  We watched a movie of how it was made.

The guy who had the idea, Mr. Burglum took two years to build nine models and see if this would work on a mountain.  Burglum worked on it with many other men for 14 years before he died.  After he died, he passed the job down to his son. My Mom said: “Only in America you can have such a big, crazy dream and make it come true.”

- Dante

What an awesome concert at the Bismark cathedral. It was the most perfect end to our beautiful week of concerts in North Dakota.Everywhere we went we met generous and kind people. What struck us is that everyone seemed happy and at peace (and no on…e seemed to want to go live somewhere else.) They seemed happy living in their unique little towns with long winters with big smiles on their faces.

The countryside was absolutely breathtaking. We decided that North Dakota is not on the way to somewhere else - it is a place to go to!

The best part was to see so many excited young people there at the concert. (And our friends who came from Minot and Beulah to see us one more time.)

So, thank you North Dakota!

Btw, we were told that there is more oil underneath ND than in Saudi Arabia. I wonder: why isn’t that national news. Like they should flash the moving titles: “Americans please relax. There is enough oil for another 700 years in our own backyard. We will be just fine - North Dakota has got your back.”