How do you assess a year that’s about to end? A simple enough task, I thought. But turns out it is not. It began as a challenge in the form of a writing prompt. That’s a writing assignment, if you choose to accept it.

My mind keeps drifting back to five years ago today ... a day that changed our lives.

Seeing the book sparked a flashback. One thing led to another. The book was “Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure.” I was suddenly pulled back to my high school years, when I had read a printing of the 1934 edition of “Alone.”

On Thanksgiving Day, Daniel Ray and I hosted a mystery menu dinner here for both sides of our family

Well, winter has spoken, and her official reign doesn’t even begin for another two weeks.

“Read all about it! Read all about it?”

Our nation’s officially-designated day for giving thanks has come and gone.

For this column, I’m going to share some excerpts from my mother, Elizabeth Coblentz’s, columns from November 1994

Angels are messengers from God. How those messengers take form will always be a mystery to us, but if they bring a sense of hope, peace and goodwill during our darkest days and nights, then it should not be too much of a stretch to believe they are real.