Last summer I founded the Institute for Writing and Mass Media at Southern Virginia University. One of its purposes is to bring together aspiring writers, videographers, editors and photographers with top professionals in those fields. Our facility is a post and beam building a few miles from campus, where we put on interactive workshops, house our guest speakers, and hold dinners and fireside chats that enable students and professionals to interact in an intimate environment.

This post is written by my 10-year-old daughter Clara Belle. She keeps a journal and when I read her entry from our trip to New York City earlier this week, I asked her permission to share it with my readers.

Note: Steve Young and Jeff Benedict will sign books in Salt Lake City at the Fort Union Deseret Book store from 4PM to 7PM today (Friday). They will sign books at 12 noon on Monday (12/19) at “This is the Place” bookstore in Kensington, Maryland).

For the past nine years Santa Claus has visited our Virginia farm on Christmas Eve. The kids would wait in our barn with a window open and listen for his bells. Like clockwork, he’d appear on the brick walkway at 7:15 p.m., bellow ho-ho-ho, and come through the doors with a sack of gifts.

When I was a boy, you could find me outside most afternoons, playing baseball, football or basketball. My 16-year-old son Clancy is equally predictable. Only he’s not into sports. He’s into photography. Every day at sunset he grabs his camera and heads outside. It’s a habit he formed back when we lived on our farm in Virginia. Here is one of his sunset pictures.