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…