I am looking out the starboard window of the plane that's taking us home from our Big West Coast Tour. I was looking at the Seattle bay and wishing I could go swimming. Now the omnipresent Pacific Northwest clouds are blocking my view and as always, my thoughts turn to you. I think of you all the time, my beloved...you are never far from my thoughts. Oh, wait, sorry, I was channeling a 19th Century consumptive. But it's true; you never are far from my thoughts. You are the reason we do what we do.

Our Big West Coast Tour consisted of a show at McCabe's in LA on Friday and a show at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle last night, Saturday. Now we are homeward (and Amelia) bound.

Life is so sweet. While we were out here, Dave called and said Amelia drew a picture and then said "Mum Mum. Da Da" as she pointed to it. Also, life is sweet because even though the world seems to get scarier and scarier, from where I stand, people seem to get wiser and more loving and more funny too. Maybe it's the company we keep, meaning you all. We have the world's best fans. I want to say a special thank you to those of you who came to our LA show and I am sorry I didn't come down to say hello and thank you in person, but I was way jet lagged and catching up with Yesterday's Girl who moved to CA a year and a half ago and whom I miss terribly.

Oooo, I see Mt. Rainier! It's almost as tall AS WE ARE IN OUR PLANE!

And then we got to remember why it is that, like so many clever people who have chosen to live there, we LOVE Seattle! For some reason, our shows at the Tractor are the most magical of all. We only wish we could have stayed longer.

Plans: We are going back to the fine studio of Dave Chalfant this winter to start recording. What exactly we are recording is TOP SECRET!! But of course, we'll tell YOU as long as you promise not to tell anyone else. We're recording songs to go on an album tentatively entitled TOP SECRET!!! This will all materialize sometime next summer or fall. New songs which we are performing and/or working up and/or considering include:

• Sara, with Your Ring
• The Day I Let Glory Steer
• Kiss Me on the Moon
• Jason and His Arrogant Argonauts
• Haven't I Been Good
• The Home Team (The Other Team)
• The Epiphany Didn't Lead us to Happily Ever After
• When I Let You Into My Closet
• I've Got A Little Thing For You
• The Other Side

and some older unrecorded songs like:

• Great American Radio Song (aka "This Tune")
• Dreaming by the Side of the Road (written in 1993!)
• Kiss It and Make It Better

But who knows what will happen between now and January?

Did I mention that I adore you all?

Love, Nerissa

Now from Katryna.................

Hello friends!

I love love love this time of year. I love the lights. I know they are supposedly wasting vast amounts of power, but they bring so much joy and serenity to us. I don't actually have any lights up at my house (yet). I am a little bit of a pyrophobe. This is all right because, I have to drive past the Yankee Candle Company whenever I go anywhere. For those of you non-Yankees, the YCC is the SCENTER of New England. That means it has candles scented however you wish for those who like to decorate their homes with odor. It also is just this side of a theme park. I think it is supposed to evoke Bavaria. Anyway, it is covered with lights. All the lights are white. The trees are coated. Some might find it a little over the top, but still... it makes me happy every time I drive by.

This year we are celebrating the shortest days with a wonderful tour. All year long I look forward to Falcon Ridge. I am sure that a lot of you do too. I love seeing friends; I love making music, both spontaneous and planned, that I don't get to make the rest of the year. Most of all, I love the feeling of community. SO I got this idea that we should have a Falcon Ridge-y tour to tide us over until July. We called up the Kennedys- duh- and Susan Werner and we asked them if they'd like to do a little tour. So we are. It might even have some holiday flavor. It will definitely have both spontaneous and planned music that doesn't happen anywhere else. I am looking forward to this more than I can say. We will be playing wonderful places both familiar and new ones. New York is the first show and we will be joining the Kennedys at one of their favorite haunts, The Cutting Room. Then we are off to the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA where Susan will join us. Then we're off to Titusville, NJ, Ellsworth, ME- home of WERU, A Joyful Noise Coffeehouse for those of you in the Boston area and finally as close as we could get to Hillsdale...Great Barrington, MA. Please come out and catch a little light during this dark month.

We will be celebrating the end of 2002 and the birth of 2003 with Dar Williams and Catie Curtis at the Calvin Theater in our beloved hometown, Northampton, MA. Need I say more?

Happy Holidays to all of you. Thank you for letting us do what we love. Hope we get to see you soon!

Love, Katryna

© 2002, reproduced with permission