I hope everyone had a healthy and happy holiday season, visiting with loved ones, maybe shoving thoughts of national and international problems out of your mind for at least a little bit and replacing them with visions of sugarplums.

Ours was nice, and made even nicer by a good friend. In fact, in our family lore we will always remember 2023 as “The Year Beth Clark Saved Christmas (for the Cutillos, at least).”

Here’s the story.

Two of my three sisters were coming to Geneva for Christmas Eve. Before the festivities at our place, they wanted to pay a visit to our mom and dad, who are buried at St. Mary’s. Actually, Dad is buried there, and Mom’s ashes, as per his request, are with him.

Whenever we make the pilgrimage we like to bring a bottle of Strega with us to toast them. For the uninitiated, Strega is a neon-yellow liqueur that is made from a combination of anywhere from 40-70 herbs, from what I’ve read. The commercial recipe for it is a well-guarded secret — like that of Coca-Cola and apparently Twinkies (hey, I saw that online). Saffron makes it yellow, but as far as the other herbs, if you had a taste testing with 40 people, you would get 40 different opinions as to........

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