12/31/00 Time to hibernate. Better to watch the snow from inside than to be out in it. I couldn't find a picture of wind,but it's out there too!

12/29/00 - The Stephenson Fire Department was called out at ll pm last night for what was described as a "very minor" chimney fire at the Marvin Marcusen residence on County Road 356. They were on the scene for less than an hour.

12/27/00 - The Stephenson Fire Dept. has been called out three times in the last two days - twice today for auto rollovers on G12 and at 6 am yesterday to assist the Mellen Fire Department. Mellen Fire Chief, Tom Phillipps said they were called at 5 am yesterday for a house fire on U.S. 41 just south of Corey's Auto Salvage in Ingalls. The building, owned by Jason Stewart, was a total loss but there were no personal injuries, according to Phillipps..

- If you're a Yooper who couldn't make it home for Christmas, consider this: In Stephenson, on the north side of my house, the wind chill is at about 40 degrees below zero (that's my unofficial estimate). On the south side of the house the icicles are melting in the sunshine, while the north wind is blowing snow off the roof. Feel better about not being here?? Thought so. Have a Merry Christmas, wherever you are.

12/19/00 - It's just a one-liner in the minutes of the December 7 City Council meeting: "The construction of the new department of public works building has started." The building has come a long way in a short time, and they continue work on it daily, regardless of the weather. Sometime the men are moving about like penguins, with all their layers of warm clothing, but they start by about 7:30 most days, dusting off the snow and pushing and pounding here and there on the various machines until they get everything running. The foundation was poured before the first real cold spell and the steel framework was in place shortly after. The north wall is up and today they are working on the roof. It's going to be a bigger and much better storage and working area than the former city garage.

12/17/00 - I've been in a pre-holiday hibernation for the past couple of weeks. It's so nice I may extend it into January and February. I even almost forgot about the December horoscope, but here it is:

December born people are the greatest. They have known almost from birth that they better watch out, better not cry and better not pout. It has nothing to do with where Venus is in the sky or that you may need a super-powerful telescope to spot Jupiter. They know there is this guy, right here on earth, in a spot even colder than the U.P., who has been around for a long time but avoids "senior moments" by making a list about when they're awake and when they are sleeping. There's not much to do around his house most of the year so he even keeps lists about who is naughty and nice. He tries hard to be fair so he double-checks everything. Maybe it's because he wants to keep all those ambitious little elves busy, or because the reindeer really complain if they have to drag too many bags filled with lumps of coal around the whole world in one night. Or maybe he's just a nice guy who knows what December 25th is all about and enjoys making people happy.

12/12/00 - If life gives you a lemon, make lemonade. Okay. But what about snow? And cold? If you're a Yooper, and a member of the Crafty Crew homemakers' group from the Cedar River area you know how to handle those things. They prepare ahead, gathering odds and ends of craft materials and then spend some time in nice warm houses making all sorts of snowmen. They took them to the library in Stephenson and used them to decorate the Christmas tree, then went on from there to celebrate the cold, snowy holiday season at their annual Christmas party. If you've never seen a snowman with a see-through tummy filled with candy stop by the library and check him out. There are also snowmen's heads made from light bulbs with hats on top and painted faces and an assortment of cloth, wood, crocheted and combinations of various crafts used in this display. No real snow though, so these guys aren't going to melt, although they will probably disappear soon after Christmas.

12/8/00 - Aaron Ihander was named Stephenson's Police Chief at the meeting of the City Council last night. He will fill the position vacated by the resignation of Wayne Coleman. Jeff Brunelle of Menominee was hired to fill the police officer position formerly held by Ihander.

12/8/00 - She's only eight years old, but Ana Vandenberge, from the Wallace area, has been collecting angels "most of my life," saying she started when she was about a year old. She has l3 angels on display in the showcase at the entrance to the library in Stephenson. They include everything from a blanket with an angel design to a large angel made of straw and a little pink pig with angel wings. When asked which is her favorite she responded, "I'd probably say the one with the book and the cross...the prayer kinda says there's always an angel watching over you." So far most of her collection has come from family members as birthday gifts. Ana's father is already making her a bigger shelf for her room to hold the angels and her beanie baby collection. Her angels will be on display until after the holidays.

12/5/00 - Elves Dan Schlenvogt and Al Woods stayed busy Sunday night, assisting emcee Marian Koldos with the program at the Friends of the Library Christmas party. There were some real intellectual games. You had to remember to stand up if you disagreed with some of Marian's statements and to sit down if you didn't. She passed our letters of the alphabet and you had to think of something Santa could bring that started with that letter. Rita Bronoel expected something "Unusual" for her letter U, and for the letter E Bob Salvatori hoped by Christmas he'd get some "Election" results. The letter I holder let us know "I am leaving for Florida in the morning." Four or five others, of the 36 present, were also leaving the U.P. within days for warmer climates - but there were some out-of-state visitors who seemed happy to be spending time in the U.P.

Current events kept creeping into the festivities. When asked for names for two new reindeer Santa might add to his crew someday, Gore and Bush were obvious choices. The "guess how many snowflakes in the bottle" brought demands for a recount. Someone insisted the correct answer was "zero" because what Marian was calling snowflakes were actually white foam packing peanuts. That brought up questions if only the whole ones were counted, or if the count included broken ones. And what if some broke after they were counted?? Thankfully, there were no lawyers present.

By now it was close to Packer game time but Marian insisted on following the tradition of closing the event with the singing of "The 12 Days of Chirstmas" with various people singing the different parts. It was something of a musical disaster, and she let us know if it weren't for the football game we would have had to keep doing it over until we got it right. Maybe the fact that an earlier Kazoo Koncert was quite successful helped, and she really isn't a Scrooge type. Besides, everyone was getting sore and tired from laughing.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please take a minute to write H. Barb Upton.