By Margaret Evans, Editor

My sister'€™s house burned down during Christmas dinner.

I was halfway through my strawberry-pretzel salad when somebody at our party -€“ there were 28 of us, both family and friends -€“ casually commented, "€œLooks like they'€™re having a smoke problem in the kitchen."

I just turned a gingerbread man upside down and made a reindeer, y'€™all.

For real.

And not to brag too much or anything, but he had gorgeously delicious Oreo crusted eyes, a shiny, red M&M buttoned nose and a scarf made out of edible snow. It'€™s as if my new spirit animal forever now and will always be Dancer, Prancer, Donner, and Vixen combined with every single Sugar Plum Fairy all caffeinated and lined up in a neat, pixie color-coded row . . . like magic.

By Margaret Evans, Editor

Back in May, I put together a "€œgraduation address"€ of sorts, using random posts from my Facebook timeline, where no opinion is too trivial to go unexpressed. It was so much fun (i.e. so easy), I decided to stitch together a "€œyear in review"€ using the same method. Behold, a smattering of miscellaneous thoughts that crossed my mind in 2017 - some decidedly less profound than others.