News For the Week of December 19, 2012

More balmy weather for December, the weekend was so nice. I am not a fan of cold weather so I loved it. I would love for the weather to stay that warm all winter. I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked, I had a virus or something on Friday night and Saturday and then caught a cold before the weekend was over.

We had good services at New Mansion Church Sunday morning. The children's classes exchanged their Christmas gifts and the Christmas Card dropoff was full of cards. Vicky Blair sang How Great Thou Art and our pastor, Jeff Marsh brought a wonderful message, scripture from Matthew. We closed with a circle of prayer for the many prayer requests and especially for the families of the children who were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Just a reminder that New Mansion Church will have a candelight service on Sunday evening, December 23, starting at 6:00 pm. Everyone is welcome to come share a song, poem, testimony or just to have a good time in worship and fellowship.

Condolences are sent to the family of Avriel Patterson who passed away last week. Everybody will remember Avriel selling watermelons and cantaloupes in the summer and apples in the fall. I always got a bushel of my favorite Jonathan apples from him.

Bob and I attended the Christmas party for the Bradleyville school staff and faculty last Friday night and had a really good time. The white elephant gift exchange is always a fun time and this year a bottle of homemade vanilla was the most exchanged present, seemed everyone wanted it. Bob came home with a new hammer, gloves, duct tape and a Snickers candy bar. I got a very interesting book that was about ancient secrets of the Bible. I got to sit by my friend and neighbor, Delbert Johnson and his lovely fiance, Lorri Snavely.

Congratulations to Dustin McHaffie on his new job as a firefighter for the city of Battlefield. We talked to Dustin a while at the Christmas party and he mentioned that this is something he has wanted and worked towards for a long time.

The Bradleyville School trap shoot team journeyed to Koshkonong last Saturday to compete in the conference trap shoot. The team placed first in the conference. Bradleyville had the high placing boy who was Dean Clark, and also the high placing girl who was Savannah Norwine.

The last ballgames before Christmas break begins will be at home on Thursday night, December 20 with Lutie. The boys and girls teams will both play. The boys will start a tournament at Seymour on December 31, but I don't know any times yet.

Birthdays for the coming week include: December 19: Alva Johnson, Kenneth Sims, Maxine Mason; December 20: Jessi Laughlin, Melissa McCleary, Jarell Yeary; December 23: Sandy Wilson, Myka Yeary; December 24: Dakota Isaacs, Pauline Lee, Kim Pollard; December 25: Rita Box, Larry Chance, Clara Combs, Jessica Koenig, Clarence Rogers.

Anniversaries for the coming week include: December 19: Bob and Sue Birdsong, Kenton and Linda Wiggins; December 23: Mike and Vicky Blair; December 24: Bob and Karen Case.

News For the Week of December 12, 2012

The almost balmy weather we have been experiencing this fall has disappeared and real winter weather has arrived for awhile. It was hard to get the house warm so I opened the fireplace back up and built a fire. There is nothing that beats a wood fire for throwing out the heat. I have always heard a lot of the heat in a fireplace goes up the chimney, but our fireplace has really been a help.

We attended a very good Christmas play at New Mansion Church last Sunday evening. Mr. Jim Denton played a Christmas song on his harmonica and Kathy Compton read a story by Helen Steiner Rice, then the smaller children welcomed everyone. A funny play by the youth and a few adults and then a skit done to the “Conrad” song. Then came the best part, the Nativity, with all the little angels, little shepherds and wise men, and our younger pastor and his wife and son portraying Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus. After the Nativity another skit by the youth to the song “Light a Candle”. The refreshments and fellowship after the play were really good too.

New Mansion Church will have their annual candlelight service Sunday night, December 23 at 6:00. Everyone is welcome to come and participate with a song, poem, story, testimony or something else you would like to share, or just to share in the fellowship of the Christmas season.

I was walking through the kitchen after the play and saw a familiar face that I had only seen on facebook for the last couple of years. It was good to say hi and hug William Platt. William is a Marine and is home on leave for a while before he has to go overseas.

William was in the first VBS class I ever taught, it was a class of 3^rdand 4^th graders and he was full of life and energy. He was such a blast to have in class.

Billy Beasley from Bradleyville is stationed in Colorado right now and is also preparing to go overseas soon. Billy is serving in the Army.

Remember all our servicemen, especially at this holiday season when most of them have to be away from their families.

I got an e-mail from Dot Combs and she wanted me to mention her appreciation for Santa, aka Vernon Fuller for his appearance at the Open House at the Getaway Gift Shop. Also a big thank you to Ashley Mann for the awesome pictures of the kids with Santa.

There are still a few pictures left that can be picked up at the shop. And a big thanks to all who came making it a fun evening for all.

The winners of the drawings were Linda Wiggins, she won the weaved basket with the silk flowers, Kari Sowell won the red athletic shirt, Gus Horner won the gift basket for men and Shelly Rogers won the signed Stan Musial shirt.

Dot says she hopes to see everyone next year...and a reminder, the shop will be closed from Dec 22nd thru March 4th. It will re-open on Monday, March 4th . If you need anything, you can always call because someone will be there at times filling on line and phone orders.

David Case has just returned home after spending a week's vacation in Turkey. He visited many cities and sites that were wrote about in the Bible, including Ephesus, the site of Laodocia, Antioch and more. He said he saw fields of olive trees as far as the eye could see and said olives were offered at every meal, even breakfast. He had a wonderful time driving all over to see the sights, but he said the jet lag he experienced was horrible. The difference between there and where he lives was 12 hours, so he was a half day ahead of where he lives. I saw a few pictures on facebook but am looking forward to seeing a lot more when he comes home for Christmas in a few weeks.

Birthdays for the coming week include: December 12: Dusty Gross, Nikki Newman, Chad Yeary; December 13: Racheal Case, Joe McCleary; December 14: Jacob Baker, Sue Guerin, Laura Melton, Hannah Swift; December 15: Nikki Combs, Kelly Horner, Robert Maggard, Chris Whittaker; December 16: Paulette Combs, Jake Mooney; December 17: Marge Combs, Sierra Rentfro; December 18: Donna Newman, Katie Reece, Kenyon Whittaker.

Anniversaries for the coming week include: December 12: Jack and Peggy Essary.

News For the Week of December 5, 2012

The wind has blown so hard the last few days all the leaves are finally gone off my maples in the backyard. Now the oak trees are a different story, as everybody knows, because a lot of those leaves won't come off the trees until new ones start budding out in the spring. We have several oaks in our front yard, so I just let the wind blow whatever leaves do fall off then rake up what's left in the spring. If I get overly energetic I may rake a little before the winter is over, or maybe run over them with the lawn mower. They all end up down over the hill anyway, under my forsythia bushes. I used to burn them but found out what great mulch and compost they make. If I chop them with the mower they compost faster, so now I leave the matches alone and use the leaves.

Kevin Newlyn, or Croc as everybody around Bradleyville knows him, made the trip to St. Louis last Friday night for a heart transplant. He had been on the waiting list for some time and finally got the call Friday afternoon to get up there as soon as possible. He went into surgery around 8 o'clock in the evening and the surgery lasted around 7-8 hours. Last I heard before writing the news he had come through the surgery well and they were keeping a close watch on him to make sure of no complications. Vicki said he would be getting up to walk later in the day on Monday. I know the family appreciates everything that has been done for them and still covets your prayers on the long road to recovery.

Santa Claus showed up at the Getaway Gift Shop in Bradleyville last Friday afternoon and was available for pictures taken by Ashley Mann. The more I looked at Santa, the more I noticed a strong resemblance to Vernon Fuller. I think maybe Vernon and Santa are related. Makes sense to me.

As nice as Santa looked, Garrett still didn't want to sit on his lap and get his picture taken. He wasn't alone as Noah Blair and Ellie Easley among others also decided they weren't in a picture taking mood. I finally suggested just sitting Garrett on Santa's lap and letting him fuss and get a picture like that. I know it sounds mean but it was only a few seconds of misery. I thought it would be cute years from now when they looked at it. Garrett still refused to get on Santa's lap, but they got a picture of him standing and looking at Santa with a not-so-pleasant expression on his face. I already think the picture is great.

While we were in the gift shop looking around and waiting for Garrett's picture I got to visit a little while with Sandy (Swadley) Menter. Sandy's husband, Kerry Menter recently passed away right before Thanksgiving. Sandy told me that she and Kerry had been married for almost ten years. Our sympathy goes out to the family.

Basketball games continue this week with both the girls and boys at home on Friday night, December 7 with Bakersfield, and only the boys at Seymour on Tuesday night, December 11.

Birthdays for the coming week include: December 5: Kyle Laughlin, Joshua Strahan; December 6: Staci Burton, Paitin Combs, Kelli Johnson, Amy Mills, Erin Wyman; December 7: Ellie Combs, Seth Combs; December 8: Mike Howie, Tracy Sherrow; December 9: Sara Blair, Tom Burkhart, Bill Box; December 10: Hannah Blair, Donna Horner, James Taber; December 11: Buddy Albright, Dustin Benton, Jeannie Cummings, Tonja Friend, Tammy Spicer.

Anniversaries for the coming week include: December 5: Bill and Rita Box; December 9: Randy and Connie Haes; December 10: George and Doris Lambeth.