It had been salvaged as a tribute to what once was (page 16).
But bygone engines — just like winter walks and family recipes, hard-fought races and frozen water — can become as magical as we want to make them.
“All of us need the reminder to keep Christmas,” says Steve Williford, who for 25 years this December has portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in the Saugatuck Village Players’ annual production of “A Christmas Carol.” The veteran actor’s performance — approached with renewed zest each year — has become a tradition in itself (page 24).
“I believe in the meaning and truth of Dickens’ story,” he explains. “It’s the ‘gold’ in those words that allows me to come back and explore it again.”
When snow falls, Michigan’s most talented chefs lend a new taste to tradition by drawing from their own family celebrations (page 36). “My first memories of wanting to be a chef are from that time between Hanukkah and New Year’s, when the kitchen becomes the focal point for this wonderful, traditional food,” shares Eve Aronoff, one of Ann Arbor’s most enterprising culinarians.
But memorable food is only part of what makes certain calendar dates “special.” Delivering comfort that makes guests “feel at home” with service that makes them enjoy being away from it is a goal upheld in Michigan’ grandest manors (page 30).
“If you want repeat guests,” says Stafford Smith, a northern Michigan hospitality veteran of 50 years, “you have to enjoy meeting their needs from check-in to check-out. You can’t ever ‘arrive.’”
As this year’s holiday season arrives, embrace the past while celebrating the present, but lay new tracks together, too. Setting the stage for traditions yet to be is magical in itself.
“Sometimes,” reflects BLUE’s Winter cover stylist Megan DeKok of her 3rd Annual Valentine’s Day Brunch with boyfriend Jake, “coffee and champagne hang out.”
Cheers to a New Year,
Lisa M. Jensen
Editor, Michigan BLUE Magazine |
