Flatwillow Homemakers met on December 13 at Linda’s home for our Christmas party and gift exchange. There were eight members present and four were absent. Linda made lasagna and everyone filled in with delicious side dishes, salads, relishes and desserts. Both the minutes and treasurer’s reports were read and approved as presented. Ginger led the Pledge to the flag. Roll call was answered with a picture of you as a child at Christmas, or a favorite Christmas decoration. Linda and Bonnie each had a birthday in December. Happy birthday to you both. Under new business, Linda received an email from a friend about quilting window covers. Suggestions were made to get plastic from local stores to cover windows. Linda will let her friend know this information.

Lillian won the blind pig. Kim and Babs are switching months for hosting Flatwillow Homemakers. Kim will host in February, and Babs will take March. Melody is hosting our January meeting. She had wanted to host it at the Community Center, but it won’t be ready for use by then. She will host it at her home on the 10th of January. We need to drive on Kelly Road and come to her house the back way. It won’t be a problem and we’ll all be there looking forward to our first meeting of 2023. There was an anonymous gift given to Homemakers in memory of Donna. Thank you! Our gift exchange was fun. We all opened gifts and enjoyed seeing what fun gifts everyone received. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Jim and Melody hosted their annual card party and pot luck on New Year’s Eve. They had a full house. There were four tables of cards. It was so fun to socialize and enjoy the food. Jim prepared a ham and lamb. Both were delicious. Everyone brought delicious pot luck. We started arriving at 4:00 and ate around 5:30. Then the card games fun began. Mark and Jody Weller, Dan and Nancy Belk, Tom and Diane Iverson, Don and Sunny Lageschulte, Bill and Kristy Johnke, Phil Iverson, Tye and Raye Anne Lund, Jesse and Sandy Gonzalez all came to the New Year Eve party. Jim always has traveling prizes, so it was fun to see who ended up with a prize at the end of the night. The men’s category – Mark won the average; Tom won the low and Tye won the men’s high. The women’s category – Sunny won the average; Raye Anne won the low, and Nancy took the women’s high prize. Sunny won the pinochle prize, and Nancy won the 100 aces prize. No one had a family in their hands of cards so there was not a family winner (in the card game). Around 10:00 the party started breaking up. I’m sure all of us were in bed when the ball dropped and the New Year was welcomed in. Happy New Year to all!

School started up again on the 3rd. They didn’t have school on that Monday but did go to school on Friday. The regular Monday – Thursday 4 day week will resume January 9.

Notice, if you have been calling the Petroleum County Conservation District office, their phone has not been working since early September. The phone is now working, but they have still not been able to check their messages. If you called since September and left a message, they are not ignoring you, they had not received it. They are working to get into their voicemail and get it fully functional.

The week before Christmas we had -25 degrees with a -50 degree windchill. Two weeks later we are having 45 degree weather and our snow is melting. I didn’t care for the brutal cold, but I do like snow, and I hope we receive more snow and then wonderful spring rains. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that 2023 is a happy, healthy, and blessed year for all of us.