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.