Our columnist ends the year by announcing her third annual holiday awards, the ''Christies''

By CHRISTIE VILSACK
December 27, 2005
DES MOINES, IOWA

This is my third annual holiday season awards column. My editor calls these awards the “Christies.”

The competition was stiff this year, but Kathryn Duffy, head of the music department at Grand View College in Des Moines, wins the “Yes, Virginia There Is A Santa Claus” Award. Just after Thanksgiving, I received a letter from Kathryn inviting me to the “Julefest” Concert at Grand View Lutheran Church. She knew that I arrived last year at the last minute and had a hard time finding a seat, so she noted that the usher would hold a ticket for me. I noticed this year that Kathryn directed the choir sitting down. At a reception afterward I discovered why. Ten days earlier she donated a kidney to save her brother’s life. The recuperation is arduous, but Kathryn was determined to direct her choir. Isn’t that what Christmas is about – the gift of life?

The “Spirit of Giving in State Government” Award goes to Judi Brooks who, with her siblings Janet Cook and Jack Brooks, gave the big blue spruce in their mother’s yard to be used as the state’s official Christmas tree at Terrace Hill. Twenty-six years ago, Judi, Jack and Janet gave the tree to their mother for Mother’s Day. Together they planted it in their front yard. By this year, the tree had grown too big for the yard, so now our guests at Terrace Hill this season and those driving by get to enjoy the Brooks’ spruce. (By the way, this kind of re-gifting is acceptable.)

There are two “Only-In-Iowa” Awards this year, one going to Susie Mahan, the director of the Graettinger Public Library, and the other to Tom Bedell and Mollie Beattie of Spirit Lake.

On December 3, I visited the Graettinger library. Only a few people showed up, because the real action was happening at the American Legion Hall, where local business leaders served a free soup luncheon to the whole community. So we went to the Legion Hall to join the fun. The homemade chicken noodle was delicious, and upstairs children were playing games and waiting for Santa. I signed autographs, but I knew better than to compete with the big guy. I was out of there before the star of the show arrived.

Later that day, I changed into my party duds and sang carols in the Irish Pub in the lower level of Tom and Mollie’s new home at Peace Harbor on Lake Okoboji. In pointy-toed high heels, I made the first basket of the night in the small basketball court adjacent to their son’s bedroom. After dinner, 400 guests gathered in the upstairs living room for a concert by Kenny Loggins. As I stood listening, I realized that the whole town of Graettinger could have fit in this living room. People came from miles around to see the interior of this home, paying a minimum of $1,000 per couple, with Tom and Mollie donating the $500,000 that was raised in one evening to the Bedell Family YMCA in Spirit Lake.

Only in Iowa could I experience two such different events in one day that epitomize the meaning and spirit of community.

I received the “Best Present From a Non-Family Member” in Griswold on December 7, where I met Floyd Pearce. Floyd is a writer, poet, historian, collector and much more. After my remarks, Floyd presented me with a hand-bound book printed at his small press, Pterodactyl Press. The book is a poem titled “Tesson,” which he wrote to commemorate Iowa’s 150th birthday. He printed 52 copies and hand-bound it with end sheets made of Japanese rice paper created at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. My copy is bound in walnut-stained flax. It is the most beautiful book I own. More important it was written and presented by an Iowa treasure, one of those rare people who remind me that quality is better than quantity, that some of our best writers and best thinkers will never win a prize or find themselves reviewed in the New York Times.

“Tesson” is a complex poem, researched and footnoted, about an apple orchard planted by a French Canadian trader near Montrose. Now the orchard is under water just above the Keokuk dam. I will never drive the river road between Montrose and Keokuk without thinking about Tesson’s orchard and the price of progress.

The “Funniest Moment of the Season” Award and the “Most Poignant Moment of the Season” Award happened at the welcome home community ceremony in our hometown of Mount Pleasant for the members of the 224th Engineering Battalion of the Iowa Army National Guard, arriving from their service in Iraq, and their families. My husband Tom told me that Lee Crull, who has worked in his law office for years, was there to welcome her son Mark, but she couldn’t get to him because he was surrounded by well-wishers. She was so frustrated that she hugged Tom instead. The governor told her he thought she should stop being so polite and start pushing people aside.

At the same ceremony Marilee Donnelly welcomed her grandson Marcus who had come home from Iraq unscathed. She had gone to pick up his four- wheeler that day. “If he wrecks that thing and gets hurt, I’m going to kill him,” she said to Cindy Jones. Cindy, who commutes from Mount Pleasant to work in the governor’s office, said there are no Iraqis tougher than that grandma. (By the way, Cindy won one of the coveted limerick contests at this website a few weeks ago, and she’s still gloating.)

The “Best Homemade Present of the Year” Award goes to Sonja Roberts of Des Moines. She makes dolls called “Sweaterheads.” Her grandmother was a knitter who made sweaters. After she died there were all those sweaters, and what to do with them? Sonja turned them into sweater dolls, preserving bits of the sweaters and memories of their maker. When my aunt Jessie Schley died in March, I found her Christmas sweater, a big black mohair with bits of shiny colored tinsel-like threads woven in. It didn’t fit any of the women in my family, but I just couldn’t give it to Goodwill, so I kept it. When I remembered Sonja’s dolls, I called to see if she could turn Jessie’s sweater into dolls for my two sisters-in-law, my two nieces and me. She did an amazing job. The five dolls are similar but each is very distinctive, like quintuplets. Each has a name derivative of Jessie Josephine. I kept “J.J.” The others are on their way to new homes and good memories of an elegant, intelligent, funny woman who taught us all how to grow old glamorously and how to celebrate the season.

The “She Really Gets Into Christmas Decorating” Award goes to Jane Wimmer, who goes all out to decorate her home in Urbandale with nutcrackers. No one knows how many nutcrackers the Wimmers have collected. This year, she vowed to count them so she can engage next year’s guests in a contest to guess the number. The collection started years ago when Jane took her children Mandi and Christopher to Valley Florist, then located on Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines, to see the elaborate Christmas decorations. Christopher, now employed in the movie industry in California, fell in love with a room full of nutcrackers on display and told his mother that’s what he wanted for Christmas. She bought him his first Steinbach nutcracker. Each year she added another of the well-known German-made figures. Now they’re everywhere, not just on shelves and hanging on trees, but on napkins, mugs and wine glasses.

Jane is so good at decorating that stores hire her to do their windows. Her window at Great Earth Vitamin Co. is so appealing that customers are coming into the store who have never been there before. At Sahar’s Continental Shop, an upscale spa and clothing store for women, customers ask to buy the items in Jane’s window display, which aren’t for sale. As someone whose idea of decorating is buying a few poinsettias, I’m in awe of people like Jane who can create the illusions that make us suspend belief and recapture childhood awe for a few days each holiday season.

The “Best Family Holiday Participation” Award goes to the Schulte family of Urbandale. I met Sam and Kelli when we were taping some ads for the museum of the State Historical Society of Iowa. Their dad Rich is president and general manager of Jordan Motors. Their mom Kerry works in the marketing department. Jordan Motors sponsored the ads. Sam and Kelli both had acting experience at the Des Moines Playhouse. Kerry told me the whole family was going to try out for “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” there. When they all made the cut, Sam and Kelli invited me to a performance. I was especially impressed that Rich agreed to be the fireman, whose only responsibility was to run across stage in a fireman’s gear. That’s my kind of part.

The “Best Quiet Moment of the Season” Award goes to a simple pleasure I experienced on December 10. Every morning I walk our Labrador dog Rosie. On that pristine morning, new snow had just fallen. On the dirt road a few blocks from Terrace Hill, I noticed a series of bird nests in bushes along the railroad tracks. Snow had dropped from the branches but had piled up in the nests – maybe six of them – exposed in the branches. They looked like bowls filled with mounds of vanilla ice cream waiting for someone with a big spoon.

Quiet morning walks give me time to reflect on those people this holiday season who are struggling, who don’t feel the joy. Two friends are hospitalized; one is fighting for his life. My morning walk takes me past the home of our neighbors who lost a son, too young, to a heart attack. One night I noticed his mother volunteering in the kitchen at a Terrace Hill holiday event. Some have to dig deep to find the spirit. When they find it, it makes this season of sharing and light all the more remarkable.

Our son Jess, the new hire at the Polk County Attorney’s office, had to be at the courthouse early Christmas Eve morning and early Christmas Day to give due process of law to anyone jailed the night before. For the man jailed for domestic abuse, Jess asked the presiding judge for no bond. A guy who abused his wife on Christmas Eve deserved to sit in jail, he reasoned. The judge concurred. Because his job required his presence at the courthouse early each day, we spent Christmas at Terrace Hill for the first time, instead of going to Mount Pleasant as we have in past years. Our family celebration was occasionally interrupted by phone calls from local police who needed Jess’s assistance. Amid our gift giving and celebration together, we recognize that our loving family is a blessing. Jess’s experiences helped remind us that “to whom much is given, much is expected.”

By the way, may we all be mindful of those who struggle and suffer as we make decisions about the course our new year will take. As we celebrate the old year’s passing, let us remember the least among us, for that is what it means to be part of a community.