Christmas 2025

Merry Christmas! We missed you—and a lot more—last Christmas (2024), which I spent in what may be the most expensive building project ever done in Duluth: a towering, 18-story, all-glass medical facility perched on the hillside overlooking Lake Superior.

After fifty years of fighting my bad genes, I had open-heart surgery to repair a failing heart valve. My first hospital stay since birth was quite the experience. Apparently, I’d had the problem for a couple of years—all while Ann and I were walking and hiking at least five miles a day. It's hardly an overstatement to say that it took two medical doctors and four cardiologists over a month to figure out what was wrong. Along the way, I was put under anesthesia four different times. 

Although it wasn’t an emergency, I elected to spend Christmas in the hospital just to get it done. It turned into a family affair. Ann, the boys, and I spent the two days prior hanging out at the house where we raised them. I told Ben—who lives in Seattle, already had one kid and whose wife was eight months pregnant—that he didn't have to come.

"I'm not missing this one," he said.

They all got up at 4:30 a.m. to see us off, and they were in the room when I came out of surgery. My first recollections were the boys laughing at something I said. All went well. It's amazing what you can get for $200,000.

Since then, Jason and Ben have each had second children, Henrik and Elle (Jason has the boys; Ben, the girls). Ann restarted her mobile daycare business, with extended stays in both Seattle and St. Paul. We already knew the older grandchildren were above average and—no surprise—the new ones are, too. And good-looking as well.

We’ve continued gatherings in St. Paul, Seattle, Duluth and at our place in Lutsen, Minnesota. Ben and his family were here again for two weeks this summer. One weekend, his brothers and company all joined us at the house—a reminder that this is a one-and-a-half-bath house. It does not handle eleven people well!

We regularly get to all of their homes, and Ann and I have picked up our own travel schedule. Last year we took a two-week road trip through the Deep South. Ann has taken a strong interest in our nation’s history of slavery and racial justice, and it was a stunning trip—starting in Memphis (a surprisingly interesting place), traveling into central Mississippi through very rural areas, then east through Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.

We stayed focused on the Civil Rights Trail, visiting both large and small museums, monuments and heritage markers along the way—including an entire Greyhound bus station in Jackson preserved as part of the story. Twice, we spent long stretches talking with men working at small museums, who described their memories as children watching physical confrontations unfold between their communities and the government.

One of my highlights of the year was a long weekend David and I spent in the Upper Peninsula at an Airbnb on a lake not far from the cabin my parents once owned in Michigamme. Michigamme was barely surviving when I was young, and it hasn’t changed much since.

We spent our days riding around the very rural area, stopping by the lake property I once owned, and following parts of the old railroad line engineers once blasted through the Huron Mountains that never saw a train. We ate at local spots and checked out the town’s new museum. It brought me back to so many wonderful memories of the area, the people and the places I’ve camped and fished since I was a kid. I can hardly wait to do it again.

Ann first visited the Lutsen Lodge on Lake Superior when she was very young. I was introduced to it through more than forty annual ski trips I started after moving to the Twin Cities. In March, five of us who have been friends since then—plus a few stragglers—will meet up again this winter.

Ann and I both owned lake property before we were married. After selling our last cabin just north of Duluth, we eventually bought a condo managed by the Lutsen Resort. One of my ski friends had already done the same.

Vacationing in Lutsen has become a regular part of our lives, often including the kids and grandkids, who usually spend several days there with us over the Fourth of July. Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior is just one of the grandest places. We never tire of it.

The Nelson family founded Lutsen Lodge in the 19th century and sold it decades ago. The second owner since then is currently sitting in a jumpsuit in a county jail in Michigan, arrested for burning the iconic building down. He'll soon be back in Minnesota facing multiple felony charges. Actions, as it turns out, still have consequences.

Ann has recently reconnected with a couple of college friends who live in Milwaukee and Illinois. This summer, we’re planning to again meet up with them and their spouses for several days at our place in Lutsen to celebrate Ann’s birthday. I met them all at our wedding, and now we’re all friends.

In an odd “what comes around” coincidence, I and a Minneapolis friend I met through Big Brothers over forty years ago and who’s in our ski club now volunteer with SCORE, a national professional mentoring organization. It's been one of the most interesting things I've done since leaving work—helping younger people get into and succeed at their own jobs and businesses.

David started playing piano in first grade and still plays. Over a year ago, he contracted with a local restoration shop specializing in rebuilding Steinway grand pianos—fabricating soundboards, installing new actions, restringing and refinishing. Months later, they delivered it into his home. It’s just beautiful—and he’s still the best piano player I’ve ever known personally.

We’re doing well. Winter came fast. It’s been very cold and the ground is covered in beautiful white snow. Let’s call it a U.P. winter!

This week, we’ve been distributing Christmas gifts to kids whose parents are in prison—a program Ann started working with several years ago. It’s good to get gifts to kids who might otherwise have very little at Christmas.

Ann has the house decorated with a real Christmas tree. She’s making cardamom bread as I write, with plans for cookies and other fun foods. We’ll be in St. Paul for Christmas.

Wishing you all a wonderful and blessed holiday season, and a great 2026!

Ann and Jon

And as Linus reminds us every year:

“Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people… Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”