Houlton Council of Catholic Women
by Lois Downing
Houlton Council of Catholic Women met in the parish center following the last Mass Sunday, December 5. Moderators, Rev. David Raymond, Deacon Albert Burleigh were present plus guest Jackie Judkins and Tracey Albert with baby Garrison.
The meeting began with Co-president Mary Armour leading the traditional prayers and ending with ‘’Ave Maria’’ hymn. Father Dave gave the blessing before the luncheon. Favors were added by Jane Stile in a festive basket denoting Christmas.
After a delicious luncheon, the meeting was resumed with Mary Grant giving a treasurer’s report, mostly reporting on the rummage sale in October and the Christmas Fair in December. Sharon Lowry was the winner of the wreath HCCW sponsored. She turned the money of 50 one dollar bills into the humane society. Jane Mitchell donated the wreath.
Mary reminded the 20 members attending that the Giving Tree project is underway, and the decorated tree is at the back of the church.
Faith Formation had a birthday party for Jesus December 11—the children brought gifts such as toiletries, diapers, towels, face cloths, games, etc. Their collection will be given to the Giving Tree. All parishioners are invited to participate.
Donations of monetary gifts were given to St. Mary of the Visitation Church for Christmas altar decorations, HCCW advertisement in the church bulletin, Cary Library and our own St. Mary’s Library, and the church fuel fund.
St. Mary’s parish is looking for parishioners age 90 or over. Please call the rectory with names of this age—Mary Grant will have charge of the project.
Janet Barker donated several greeting cards and was thanked by correspondence secretary Lois Downing. Mary Grant gave thanks to Jane Mitchell for supplying the wreath at the Christmas sale and all the members who helped on the HCCW table by baking, selling, and otherwise were thanked. Proceeds from their wreath were donated to the seminarian fund, motioned by Ethel Mercereau.
Lynette Dobbs read a spiritual Christmas/St. Francis passage. Birthdays and anniversaries dates were recognized.
Father Dave added his words of wisdom concerning Advent and the Christmas season. The seminarian fund was distributed. The Yankee swap took place as the feature of the meeting, with Janet Barker leading the project. The next meeting will be in January, the exact date to be announced and the members are asked to please watch the church bulletin for the time.
Red Hat Border Belles
The Red Hat Border Belles enjoyed their Christmas luncheon at the Horn of Plenty on Wednesday with the following ladies in attendance: Leola Bishop, Joyce Blake, Linda Cassidy, Patricia Chase, Elva Coburn, Lillian Gibson, Barbara Grant, Irene Jackson, Joan Logan, Marjorie Melvin, Priscilla Monroe, Sara Regent, Marilyn Tidd, Jean Wiley and guests, Therese Lussier, Julia Craigs and Veronica Stauffer.
Christmas table favors decorated each place setting and calendars for next years’ events were distributed.
Following the luncheon, the ladies departed to the home of Priscilla Monroe for a cookie swap and wassail. Priscilla’s Victorian home was brilliant with Christmas cheer, showcasing the ceiling-high fir tree, nutcracker soldiers standing at attention on the mantels, and the smell of warm wassail drifting through the air. What a perfectly delightful place to spend the afternoon talking with friends and eating ourselves silly. We had to sample each other’s cookies, after all!
More gifts awaited each member and guest in purple and red gift bags that surrounded the base of the Christmas tree. The afternoon was topped off with several ladies winning extra goodies by holding the lucky numbered tickets.
Everyone was wished a Merry Christmas and agreed to meet again next year.
Ricker Rumblings
by Lois Downing
The Christmas season is here with Advent in its third Sunday. Decorated trees are up with wreaths everywhere, ornaments everywhere, tinsel, Santa Claus and isn’t it just a jolly time! Lots of work, I’ll grant you, but Christmas is so festive and the snow on the ground makes it seem like the season.
I didn’t like the last storm—the snow was so heavy and hard to shovel. Our driveway was clear in no time with the helping hands of so many. Thank you all.
We were sorry to learn of the passing of Mim Nichols Friday past. She was a good person and will be sadly missed by Retired Senior Volunteer Persons doing telephone work. May she rest in peace!
Our newest tenant is Florence MacDonald, commonly called ‘’Flossie.’’ Flossie is a very happy lady and resembles Shirley Ellis who used to live here a few years ago. Welcome to Flossie.
Peggy Robinson has returned from her 18 days trip to Florida. We were happy to see her return, especially Priscilla Brownlow. Peggy and Priscilla are very good friends. Priscilla calls Peggy ‘’her right hand man.’’
Eva Pelletier is home from the hospital. She is one of the tenants at the new Commons Square apartment house in Market Square. Eva, I know you wanted to get home. Eva says her new apartment is beautiful and I’ll bet it is too.
Ricker friends had a great Bingo this past week. One of the ladies brought a fairly large tree, gold in color, to be used as a blackout prize. Jeannie Armstrong, wife of Paul, was the winner. Joyce Bryant attended and treated us with candy again—her choice this time was red/green M&M’s. Good, Joyce, and many thanks.
Saddie Carmichael has 20 great-grandchildren. I hope I got the number right. Saddie revealed that she also has a grandchild on the way, a boy. Congratulations to Saddie.
Here is a note about the Giving Tree at St. Mary of the Visitation Church. We are sponsoring personal care items this year, such as diapers, deodorant, toothpaste, toilet paper, lotion, etc. The items on the tags should be returned by December 17. St. Mary’s food pantry, Stepping Stones, Community Health and Counseling will be the recipients. Nice idea.
Southern Aroostook Coordinator for Meals on Wheels is John Walker. John can be reached at 415-1688. They come to Ricker Plaza on a regular basis. John is very accommodating as is his helpers. The Winter Craft Fair at the Rec building was fun, not to mention very busy with such a crowd of people. The students from high school who helped RSVP set up and clean up were so cordial and helpful. They did their parents and school proud. It is amazing to see booths set up and realize all the skills and craftsmanship we have in Aroostook County. Maine Made is for real. County Made is awesome. It was possible to find a gift for the impossible. Thanks to Molly Bailey, Rose Levesque and many more who tended the booth.
Elaine Duff has left the County—she moved to Bangor to be near her daughter. Her husband, according to the sources here, went with her and will be a tenant at one of the nursing homes there. Good luck to Elaine and her family. Many of us will miss Elaine, and especially her little dog.
Bonnie Pratt, our RSVP person, came to visit the other day. Bonnie is a very busy lady and loves her job. Thomas Vasko is a patient at Eastern Maine in Bangor, at the time of this writing. Thomas probably won’t be here to attend our Christmas party but we wish him a Merry Christmas.
I must wind this up but first my angel quote: ‘’Sacred are the seraphim, disciples of love in action, obedient messengers of faith’s promise. Cherished are the cherubs, sweet channels of joy manifested, anointed purveyors of hope’s deepest dreams.
See you next week!
Sherman Senior Citizens
On Wednesday, Dec. 7, the Senior Citizens club met to discuss business, enjoy a delicious potluck lunch and a session of beano afterwards.
Please come to the Christmas dinner, prepared by Annie, and bring sweets to complement the ham and veggies, to our next meeting at the gym at 11:30 a.m.
Fred Atkinson passed away last week. We appointed some new officers to serve in the upcoming year of 2012.
Present were Sandra Qualey, Eva Perry, Donna Grass, Bonita Staples, Esther Greenier, Linniea Perry, Francis Gorman and Annie Atkinson.
Friends and Needles Quilt Guild
The Friends and Needles Quilt Guild met Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the Houlton Regional Hospital. We were greeted by our lovely co-chairladies, Jennifer Metzgar and Karen Gallop. Jennifer let us know that the secret sister program was going strong and that she was having fun.
Karen brought up that we usually do a food drive at our December meetings, but this year our powers that be thought we could spice it up a bit. After a few suggestions it was brought to a vote our guild would donate a generous $500.00 to the Salvation Army for fuel assistance in the greater Houlton area.
Reminders
January retreat in Presque Isle is full, but if you are interested please let Kim Hazelett know. If enough interest is shown we could have another one (yeah!). Jan. 14 class quilted sweatshirt with Tammy Ritchie is coming up quick be sure to order your sweatshirt and get you fabric ready Feb. 4 is Peggy Crane’s class the “Hunter Star”. Please order your template if you want one now so that you will be sure to have it.
March 6 meeting will be the presentations of the bag buddy works of art. March 10 mystery quilt with Dot Fitzpatrick is over booked again (Dot you make it so much fun- thanks). Make sure you do your homework or your quilt won’t look like the others.
May 1 is when your Linnus Project needs to be completed so that you will be included in the sewing machine drawing.
June 5 meeting will be the showing of the challenge quilts, remember the old joke “What is black and white and red/ read all over?”
Something to think about
Jennifer is wondering if our guild, with the help of other organizations, would be interested in starting a “quilt barn trail”. There are 27 of these trails across America. It would be an 8’ x 8’ board with a quilt square, of our choosing, hung on a barn along that is easily seen from a road. To see some of these trails and actual squares you can go to the internet and type in “Quilt Barn Trails of America”. Think about it for next meeting.
For Next Time
For the January meeting the fat quarters are anything polka dot. The hostesses are Dawn Anderson, Rae Hutchinson and Barb Tonzi. Bring 4- 5” squares and work tools so that we can all sew together at the
meeting.
Thank you to our food hostesses that put on our Christmas spread. And what a beautiful spread it was.
Christmas Program: Jennifer was very pleased to introduce to us on a return visit Kathy Kenny, and company (husband Bill). Kathy comes to us all the way from Cumberland. She is an antique quilt historian. She presented a very entertaining lecture on “Quilting on the Farm”. She brought 30 antique quilts made from 1850/60’s to 1910/20’s. Kathy not only explained about the quilts but also about little antidotes and handed out a recipe from the diary of one of the quilters. I think it is safe to say that all had a fun time. Thank you Kathy and Bill Kenny.
