JOHN DAY — John Day has done some growing in the recent past. From not a single car on the road with me to sitting at a stop sign waiting for 10 cars to pass before I am free to go. From entering the grocery store and not a soul inside to waiting to get in the door to see several people in every aisle and waiting to be checked out for more than 10 minutes. We cannot say we are lonely or there is never anyone around. Just interesting thoughts.

On Monday, Nov. 13, Margie Conley and Darlene Nodine were greeting everyone who came in the front door and seeing that they were signed in for having lunch with us or giving them the takeout meals they had requested. Also, they made sure they got people’s names in the drawings.

Darron Huskey led the flag salute, and Elsie Huskey did the announcing.

Forty-nine fresh meals and 44 frozen meals, plus several takeout meals, were accounted for. The ones who delivered the meals were Father Christie and Barb, Pati Davis, and Rick LaMountain. Thanks to each one of you for your service of love.

The servers for today were Barb Comer and Kathy Radinovich. After Father Christie asked the blessing, everyone went to the window to get their food and Barb and Kathy made sure everyone had their drinks and whatever else they desired to make the meal pleasant. We dined on spaghetti with meat sauce, green salad, garlic bread and a delicious cake for dessert. Thank you, Barb and Kathy, for a job well done and with smiles as well.

There were no new announcements, so we just mentioned all the materials we have as helpful tips for home safety, medical advice, traveling and veterans information, as well as ways to protect ourselves in dire situations.

Ron Phillips won the Len’s card, and Dave Pasko won the free meal. Congrats to both of you.

On Thursday, Nov. 16, we found Judy Thomas and Sonie Guttu at the desk to greet everyone on this special day as we were serving our Thanksgiving meal. Sonie and Judy aided folks in signing in and accepted donations for the meals. We appreciate all of our volunteers. Sonie is fairly new, and her smile just lights up the area she is in.

Fifty-five fresh meals were delivered into our community today to folks who cannot get out to come spend time and fellowship with all of us. The drivers for these meals were Jeanette Julsrud, Peggy Molnar, Cindy Combs, and Jeff and Jodi Cyphers. Thanks to each one of you for your service of love for others. Forty meals were picked up by others.

Fifty-six people were seated at our tables for lunch on this wonderful day. That made a total of 151 meals that exited our building today. Good job, Shay and Darla and Chris and Valeta. Nancy Nelson was helping at the beginning of the day as well. Thank you all for your efforts and willingness to work in our kitchen to provide this wonderful meal.

Our servers today were Sherry Feiger, Kathy Smith, Valeta Grant, Bonnie Kocis, Delores Belden and VeAnne Weddle. As each table went to get their food, these ladies helped those who needed some assistance and made sure everyone had the drinks they needed and helped with all the pies — oh, so many kinds of pie! And after everyone was done, they cleaned off the tables and made the room look like it did when we first came in. Thanks to each one of you for your service.

Bingo has been canceled till further notice. We will miss this activity, but we know we will be coming back in a short time.

We had a few pies left over so they were offered for a small price to anyone who wanted them.

Tomorrow, Nov. 23, we will be closed for Thanksgiving. This is family day and a time to reflect on all we are thankful for. On Monday, Nov. 27, we will dine on beef tamales, Spanish rice, refried beans, and a dessert of our cook’s choice.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.

MONUMENT — I am losing track of time! I seem to be one week behind the current events happening all around us. I will elaborate on what I am talking about. We had a wonderful meal for our Tuesday lunch. We celebrated two events at the same time. We had our Thanksgiving meal as well as our meal celebrating Veterans Day. See what I mean? By the time you read about this, it will be old news! Ha.

Our greeters at the table were Sue Cavender and Brian Woodell. They checked in all the guests, collected and counted up the money. Jan Ensign filled out all the paperwork. Judy Harris and Ellie Lucas made the announcements, and Judy led us in the flag salute. Yours truly prayed the blessing over the meal.

Our wonderful Thanksgiving meal, cooked by none other than our fabulous cooks, Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell, with the help of Christy Howell and Diane Harvey, consisted of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin spice cake for our dessert. This meal was sponsored by Katee Hoffman and the Grant County Veteran Services Office. We thank them for their generous support of our senior center. Oh, and we hope you had a wonderful birthday celebration, Katee Hoffman! We thank our cooks for the wonderful meal!

In lieu of paying for our meals, since it was paid for already, the senior center asked for a donation to give back to Katee and our veterans. The money we collected was to help pay for the costs of funerals for veterans. This was the least we could do for our brave men and women who served in the military and for their sacrifice to each of us for our freedoms and this nation.

Dallas and Cindy Helsley of Monument had set up a wonderful collection of memorabilia from World War I and II. They shared with us pictures of servicemen and women, an array of munitions, various medals, and even an old military uniform and hats. Dallas had started a collection of this memorabilia many years ago, and he loved reading about the history behind it all. It was definitely a collection that made us appreciate what we have today because of the sacrifice of these brave men and women. We thank Dallas and Cindy for sharing their collection with us.

After our lunch, Judy Harris presented four Quilts of Valor to some veterans. Dean Hoodenpyl of Alder Creek accepted a quilt for his daughter Molly and her husband, Michael Foxworthy. Molly served as a Marine, and Michael will be officially getting out of the Marines in February.

The second Quilt of Valor went to Donal McCarty of Prairie City. The third quilt went to Ronald Kipp of Spray. The last Quilt of Valor went to Payden Wayne Robinson of Monument. We thank all these men and women for their service to our country and to us. May the Lord bless them and their families for their sacrifice.

The Monument School had their bake sale during the senior meal. They had an assortment of baked goods, and many people were delighted to be able to purchase something to enjoy later on. The funds from their bake sales will help to get the Flying Tigers a trip to Boston in May.

We also had a 50/50 raffle going on at the greeting table and the raffle for the Christmas gift basket. The winner of the 50/50 raffle was Aaron Harris. The winner of the gift basket will be drawn at the Christmas Bazaar on Saturday, Dec. 9. You need not be present to win.

Joel 1:14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and call the inhabitants of the land into the House of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD.

PRAIRIE CITY — Happy Thanksgiving! We had our traditional Thanksgiving meal today, and was it ever good! Turkey, supplied by Daniel Palmer from the Strawberry Riders 4-H Club, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, broccoli, deviled eggs, green salad, rolls, pumpkin pie with topping and banana cream pie for dessert. What else could you ask for? And I ate everything on my plate! Good job, Pam and Pam, with help from Kathy Bishop. Our volunteers included Sharon, Mary, Carla, Gwynne, Ginger, Theresa, Tom and Teresa. (We have a joke about all the ladies who work here with the name Pam. Now we have two Theresas! And as I was calling to one of them, another diner said, “Yes?” Another Theresa! How about that?)

Back to business: Ginger led the flag salute. The last gift certificate from Valeria at Chuck’s Little Diner was given to Gwynne Wulfert. We are very sad about that. We wish Valeria all the best in the future. Our anonymous Christmas elf has been around and we were able to give away two extra gift certificates. Sharon Thissel gets to go to Roan’s and Becky Tatum gets to go shopping at Huffman’s with their special certificates. Thanks so much, Christmas elf.

Tom asked the blessing and then proceeded to the trivia for the day. It had a Thanksgiving theme today. All the following words mean ‘Thanks’: Gracias, grazie, merci, danke, cnacoo, takk skal dutta, evxaployw, dziekl, ook tesckkur ed erim, toda. And three that cannot be printed in English.

The trivia question was which language was each one? And some of them have little extra marks that I cannot put on them. Tom was able to “write” the ones in Japanese, Chinese and Korean because he’s an artist. He told us which ones those were, but after that, we were on our own. I should have known the one for Polish, but I did know the Spanish, French and German ones. The last one is the English for the word in Hebrew. And that’s the only one that my spell checker did not underline in red! Verry interesting. …

In other trivia, this was the birthday of Georgia O’Keefe, Petula Clark and Ed Asner. In turkey trivia, female turkeys don’t gobble. Ben Franklin wanted the turkey as our national bird. President George Bush was the first to pardon the White House Thanksgiving turkey. So, did it go back to the farm? Hmm. Remember, no meal on Nov. 22. Oh, there’s that date. Where were you when you heard the news?

Well, the music experts that I asked about the funny sign that I’d never seen have never seen it either. But I think I had a brainstorm and figured it out. When I get to that part again in my accompaniment writing, I’ll see if my theory works. It definitely makes a strange chord! And that’s what I don’t need while trying to navigate fast notes! But it’s nice to learn something new, right?

I Cor. 14:9, 10 Unless you speak intelligible words … how will anyone know what you are saying? … Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. :12 … try to excel in gifts that build up the church.