This week has gone fast! Already it is December with all its’ December activities including Christmas. Thursday (Dec. 1) Faith Lutheran Church ladies had their Christmas luncheon in the Fellowship Hall. Sue Pearson has five kittens that she would like to find a home for. I told her, “Not me! We have Butterball at the time and that is enough!” If you are interested, give her a call.
Remsen-Union had their Elementary Christmas program December 1 and the Middle School program is Monday, December 5. MMCRU Elementary program is December 12 and MMCRU High School has their program on December 15.
Hometown Christmas is December 4 through Saturday, December 10. The Cattlemen will grill hamburgers and hot dogs (11 a.m.-1 p.m.) on Saturday. Bring a non-perishable item for a free burger or hot dog. At 5 p.m., there will be a Lighted Parade, Tree Lighting, and if the weather is nice, Dejong will have horse drawn rides. There will be a Soup Supper, Bake sale, and fundraiser for Friends of the Library at the Fire Station that night.
There will be cookie decorating and holiday crafts at Ames Auto Body. The Community Center will have Santa and the Merchant Mall where gifts can be bought. The Festival of Trees is also at the Community Center. At 6:30 p.m., the winners will be announced for the lighting contest, holiday dough grand prize, coloring contest, turkey giveaway, and Festival of Trees.
Usually trees at the Community Center are decorated on Sunday. This year, most of the trees were already decorated on Saturday. I counted 19 trees on Saturday but there were some more trees not yet there, so I don’t know exactly how many will be the final count.
I went to the Library three times this past week to find letters that students had sent to Santa in past years. I had a terrible time finding what I could find. The Marcus News papers (each year) are tied together and put in the cupboard. It seems that if there was a “special edition” with the Christmas paper, it was gone! There were some years that the Christmas newspaper, including the special edition, was gone. If someone wanted a letter that their child had written, the librarian would gladly have copied it off (leaving the newspaper in the library). Now, unless the Marcus News has any of these lost issues, these letters are forever gone. They could have purchased a newspaper for under $1.
Sunday morning (Dec. 4) Bentlee John-Floyd Buren, son of Caleb and Shania (Rassel) Buren was baptized at Faith Lutheran Church. There was a dinner afterwards. Scott and Jennifer were there—it has been quite some time since I have seen her. She will have a birthday Dec. 8. I was telling her that the morning she arrived, I was eating a freshly made cinnamon roll while her dad was saying, “Hurry up!” Just before she arrived, the doctor told the nurse to take Floyd out. Of course no one wanted to say “why”. Later when I asked Floyd why he left, he said, “I didn’t get my breakfast and was feeling a little faint!” I reminded him that while I was eating, he could have been, also!
Don’t forget Sunday, December 11 from Noon to 6 p.m. that St. John’s Lutheran Church in Le Mars is presenting “Bethlehem Revisited”. It is FREE and is something worth while going to see.
I still cannot get into my computer for some of the past I will need. I was going to publish the story of Louise Ferrin and her two sons that told of how grateful they were to get to the U.S., but I couldn’t find it for this week.
As I have to have my articles in extra earlier, I am going to shorten the Personals and add The Shoemaker’s Dream.’
Edwin Markham, one of America’s great poets, tells the story of a cobbler, a Godly man, who made shoes in the old days. One night the cobbler dreamed the next day Christ was coming to his humble shop. He got up early the next morning and went to the woods to gather green boughs to decorate his shop so that it would be an appropriate place in which to receive so great a Guest.
He waited all morning, and the only thing that happened was that an old man shuffled up, asking rest. Conrad, the cobbler, saw that his shoes were worn through, so he brought the old man in. “I’ll give you a new pair,” he said and put on the old man the sturdiest shoes in the shop before sending him on his way.
He waited through the afternoon and the only happening was that an old woman, under a heavy load of fagots (bundle of sticks used for firewood), came by. She was weary and out of compassion, so Conrad brought her in and gave her some of the food he had prepared for the Christ Child. She ate with relish, for she was very hungry. And, refreshed, she finally went on her way.
Then, as the shades of night began to fall, there came into his shop a lost child, crying bitterly. Conrad was annoyed because it was necessary to leave his shop in order to take the child home, for she lived on the opposite side of the city.
Returned, he was convinced that he had missed the Lord. Sadly, he lived through the moments as he had imagined them; the knock, the call, the latch pulled up, the lighted face, the offered cup. He would have kissed the hands where the nails had been, washed the feet where the spikes had entered. Then the Lord would have sat with him, would have broken bread.
Conrad cried, “Why is it Lord, that your feet delay? Have you forgotten that this was the day?” Then, soft, in the silence, a voice he heard: “Lift up your heart, for I kept my word. Three times I came to your friendly door. Three times my shadow was on your floor. I was the beggar with bruised feet. I was the woman you gave to eat. I was the child on the homeless street.”
Remember in your thoughts and prayers those who have lost loved ones to death and have had their lives changed, have health problems, some of which are terminal, are trying to make ends meet even though they have a job, encourage those who are jobless to find a job, and be with those who are still trying to shorten the distance between family/friends by building a bridge instead of a wall. Count your blessings.
It is the time of year where people want to do more than they can afford. I will leave you with this quote from Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919): “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”