Santa Claus Arrives in Newberry!

Charlie and I took a brisk, four-block walk in 20-degree weather to enjoy the village's Christmas celebration and tree-lighting ceremony. Here's a brief accounting of the festivities. 

Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived in Newberry, Mich. at 6 p.m. on Dec. 2, much to the delight of hundreds of onlookers at the American Legion Post 74. The Grinch, in handcuffs, was escorted by a representative of the Luce County Sheriff's Department. After he was released from the back seat of the cruiser, Santa and the sheriff's department pardoned him when he promised to never steal Christmas again. Then Santa did the honors and plugged in the Christmas tree, which was decorated by ornaments fashioned by local residents. 

The crowd was entertained with Christmas carols by the Newberry High School Choir and were treated to a free dinner courtesy of a variety of community sponsors and served by members of the Newberry Area Chamber of Commerce and the Newberry High School Key Club. 

Hope you enjoy the pictures; I think they speak for themselves.

Merry Christmas from the Withrows of Newberry

Celebrate the true reason for the season
JOY TO THE WORLD
THE LORD IS COME!

Our First Thanksgiving in Newberry

As a precursor to the Thanksgiving celebration Charlie and I attended a community wide service of Thanksgiving at the Lutheran church next door. The service was uplifting and was designed to give thanks to all God's many blessings. An organ recital (or prelude) began one-half hour before the service and a social hour topped off the evening. Ladies of the community provided coffee and treats for all who attended.

Our turkey was in the oven at 9 a.m. and dinner was served at 1 p.m. Besides the turkey we had mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes baked with a brown sugar/coconut sauce, cranberries, Brussels sprouts, fresh rye dinner rolls and cherry pie for dessert.

I set the table with fall-colored Fiesta and used the gorgeous bouquet Charlie bought me as a centerpiece.
The dinner was delicious, and quiet, with just the two of us. I guess holidays will be the times we miss our kids and grandkids the most but we did get to talk to them and my parents, which was wonderful in a different sort of way. (For the record - I didn't even cry - so I guess I'm handling the separation OK.)

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from the Withrows of Newberry, Michigan.

4" of Snow and Charlie Shoveling It!

I'm behind, like always, but I just had to post these pix of the 4" of snow we got the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. It snowed overnight and we woke up to a virtual winter wonderland. It was so beautiful.

Charlie bundled up in his Carhartt jacket and set to work to rid the sidewalk of its blanket of white. Since I had marked the sidewalk with candy canes, reindeer and Christmas trees, the boundaries were easy to find and Charlie was impressed with the idea of using decorations to make his job easier.

Since my snow shovel hadn't been used in 12 years the plastic handle was in poor shape and snapped by the time Charlie got to the end of the front sidewalk. No problem - my handyman rounded up a couple of cable ties and some duct tape and had her fixed and the job finished with very little down time.

Hope you like the photographs.

Icicle

Here's our first icicle hanging off the mud room roof.