The local shopping mall is not the only place to bring your kids to see Santa Claus this year. While this may be the easiest avenue, some may be looking for a more creative and festive way to bring their kids to Santa. There isn’t a whole lot of holiday spirit at the mall outside of encouraging people to buy, buy, buy.
The Historic Courthouse in Stillwater might be your alternative route to share Santa with your children. On Sunday, December 16th, the courthouse is celebrating Christmas by inviting Santa, a family holiday sing-a-long, and refreshments. All of this will be taking place at the beautifully decorated courthouse; if you can’t get into the holiday spirit while hanging out here, you may need to check your pulse.
Local entertainer Karen Hillman will be leading the family holiday sing-a-long with her guitar at 2:15 p.m. Don’t know the words to the traditional holiday songs? No problem. Song books will be passed out so you and your kids can follow along. After that, at 2:45 p.m., Santa will be making a visit to hear all of those "good" boys and girls' Christmas wishes. Photo opportunities will be available on Santa’s lap, but without the cost of the mall photographer...
Denis McDonough, 43, a Stillwater, MN native, is being outright chosen by those ‘in the know’ to soon be appointed by President Barack Obama as the White House Chief of Staff. This Martin Luther King Day was also Obama’s inauguration after winning his second term this past November. With that victory comes the necessity to restock his cabinet for his new term.
Right now, McDonough currently works as Deputy National Security Advisor to Obama. He joined Obama’s Senate Staff in 2006 and was one of the President’s key advisors during his 2008 campaign for presidency. The Stillwater native has been with Obama and his team long enough to be trusted with such a key position.
McDonough graduated from Stillwater Area High School and also attended St. John’s University in Minnesota. After that, he achieved a master’s...
A Woodbury teacher is being recognized for her hard work. Kathy Romero teaches at Crosswinds Arts and Science School, a year-round 6-10 grade school, and was recently nominated for Minnesota Teacher of the Year by her principal Bryan Bass. Though her career as a teacher has been short, the 58 year-old has made a big impact on her students’ lives.
Romeo’s career as a teacher has been brief up to this point because education was not always her career choice. Romeo started her career in finance, working her way up from a savings and loan bank teller to a licensed stock broker.
She also raised two daughters in that time. But her dream in life was to be a teacher; so Romeo left her job and pursued an education to be a language arts teacher. The choice was a good one. She is now among 135 candidates up for the 2013 Teacher of the Year.
Romeo loves her job and strives to make learning easy and comfortable for...
It’s hard to miss the name Zach Sobiech if you’ve been on social media the past weeks. He has become a local hero, his influence even expanding to an international level. The tragic aspect to Zach’s journey is that he passed away on Monday after a long battle with cancer; the inspirational part of the story comes from the way Zach lived his life and the way he touched the lives of all who heard of his struggles.
“Writing goodbye letters aren’t Zach’s style,” his mother Laura has said, “so he puts his heart into song lyrics.”
He wanted to be able to create lasting messages his loved ones could revisit once he was gone. But one of Zach’s songs, a track titled “Clouds” has become a sensation, both on YouTube and iTunes. On YouTube, Zach’s music video for “Clouds” is up to almost five million views.
On iTunes, this track has propelled to number one on their list, even ahead of current cultural icons like Macklemore and Pink. Yes, a local kid from Stillwater who wrote a song about his struggles with cancer is the number one purchased song on iTunes in the US. But the song has even jumped to number 24 in the UK as of yesterday; the song wasn’t even on the UK iTunes top 100 songs the day before.
Part of Zach’s posthumous stardom comes from random people learning about him and wanting to spread his story every way they can; but a lot of his influence is being spread by his close friends and those who knew him.
“The effort has mostly spread via Facebook...
Behold, a once in a lifetime opportunity to own one of Minnesota’s premiere equestrian estates, located near Stillwater just minutes from the downtown and the St. Croix River Valley. The “Bleu Valley Estate” has been the residence of many stakes-winning thoroughbred racehorses over the past decades.
Bleu Valley Estate is over 70 acres and rests just alongside the Gateway Trail Extension, one of Minnesota’s most popular paved hiking/biking trails – it also has dirt trails for horseback riding, a perfect complement to the stables on the estate. Some of the surrounding properties to the estate are locked in a Land Trust, giving this location unrivaled privacy. On the property sits a magnificent log-sided home in perfect position to take in the majestic panoramic views of the Stillwater countryside.
In addition to the beautiful home - property features include: a T-shaped barn with two 36' X 84' sections, an attached 55' x 60' indoor arena, 75' x 100' outdoor area, 36' x 48' hay or equipment shed, 14' x 28' machine shed, 8 pastures featuring run-in livestock shelters and Miraco automatic livestock water dispensers. Other features include over 3,000 feet of underground water lines and 17,5000 feet of top-quality fencing. The front 20 acres of the property are primed for future development.
Owning this type of a property is a once in a lifetime opportunity – to learn more about the estate, visit www.bleuvalleyestate.com
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