Praise for those who run the cash registers

Merry Day After Christmas, aka EVERYTHING IS ON SALE EVERYWHERE DAY! Here’s to all of the retail clerks, hospitality workers, delivery people, first responders, medical care providers and everyone who has spent the last week dealing with shoppers, revelers and the public in general. Take a bow, you’re the unsung heroes of the holidays.

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For the past two decades Kiki Miller, her husband, Craig, and their son, Oskar, have delighted family and friends with a family photo at Christmas. Kiki’s mother, Betty, for many of those years sewed matching pajamas for her daughter, son-in-law and grandson. In 2018 Oskar, now 20, is living in New York studying theatre at Circle in the Square.

But the family pajama photo tradition continued without a hitch. When Kiki and Craig visited Oskar in the Big Apple over Thanksgiving they were packin’ matching onesies courtesy of Grandma Betty. The photo was taken right outside the school on Broadway and is epic.

When I asked Kiki how she managed to pull it off she said, “It was pretty easy ... coats off, jammies out of backpacks, ignore Craig groaning “the things I do for my family,” quick change on the sidewalk, done!”

She also said that they received quite a few cheers and Merry Christmas shouts from passersby.

Well played!

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When your birthday is just three days before Christmas and you’re the legendary Kelly Hughes, what do you do to make it special? Kelly invited a few hundred of his closest friends to Moon Dollars at Twin Lakes Village and played music for everyone. What a fun night, great music and a country-style celebration.

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Pat McGaughey served as the CEO of the Coeur d’Alene Chamber for most of the ’90s before starting his own consulting business in 2000. His former Chamber staff started meeting up with him for Christmas drinks at the Eagles Club since as an entrepreneur he no longer had employees for a company party.

That turned into all of the Chamber crew from Pat’s era holding the “company Christmas party” at each others’ homes on a rotation each year.

This year Pat, Toni Sayler, Christina Hatfield, Christy Vottolini Riggs, Jim Ryan, Stacey Barney, Brenda Young and Marilee Wallace Dionne gathered for dinner and a white elephant gift exchange. While everyone but Brenda and Marilee have retired or moved on from the Chamber, the friendship and camaraderie endures.

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My holiday baking included making about three dozen traditional sandbakkels and a couple dozen decorated sugar cookies. The baking elves at Pastry and More have me beat by a bunch. As of Dec. 23 the small local business baked and decorated over 12,000 of their beautiful Christmas cookies.

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Once again my New Year’s Day tradition of not jumping in a lake will be observed. Cheers to all of you who enjoy a brisk jolt of frigid water to celebrate a new year, though.

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Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne,

We’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

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Happy Birthday today to Stephanie Peugh, Cherry Heitstuman, Tom Coit, David Adland, Lisa Hoffeld, Roxanne Gunther, Lisa Herzog, Wendy Primm (50!), Karen Tarr, Teri Burch and Elizabeth Anderson (50!). Tomorrow Ann Burg, Marc Stewart, Linda Shaver (70!), Jayson Cornwell, Sandy Coleman, Larry Ruff, Butch Peacock (60!), Doreen Irving, Ron Branson and Sally Hart (50!) celebrate another trip around the sun. On Friday Chris Holloway, Tim Heidecker, Sharon Cooper, Annie McCloskey, Lynda Thurman and George Rodkey mark the anniversary of their birth. On Saturday wish Jaime Johnson, Molly Shaw, Tammy Engen, Debbie Trimble, Kathy Carothers, Toni Capaul, Sheila Wayman, Connie Haggerty, John Martin, Rachel Pen and Jamie Rowen a happy birthday. Blowing out the candles on Sunday are Paul Gorringe, Gayle Jacklin Stegmann, Marsha Dornquast, Nona Rambo, Bryce Raynor, Ilene Moss, Kalia Baltzell, Diane Ahlers, Dave Dutro, Tamara Poelstra and LeVenia Jacobson. New Year’s Eve birthdays belong to Cheryl Freeman, Kalia Baltzell, Sarah Chase, George Holcomb, Phyllis Koepsell, Shaun Leary, Sandy Thompson and Crystal Dean. On Jan. 1, aka New Year’s Day, Ron Mills, Theresa Wild, Edie Miller, Ron Jacobson, Billy Newman, Jan Leaf, Kathy Edinger Dingman, Linda Jordan, Kevin Johnson, Steve Schiller, Johanna Johnson, Jessica Hammond, David Attridge, Dianna Owens, Holly Childers, Katrina Boyer, Johanna Johnson, Declan Jones, Cheryl Shepherd, sisters Shaun Willams and Shana Crimp celebrate the first Main Street birthdays of 2019.

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.