JOHN DAY — Starting at 10 am on Monday, Dec. 4, the Grant County Jammers entertained us with an assortment of great music and some singing till lunchtime. What a great way to start a day!

Our delivery drivers, Becky Reinhart, Rick LaMountain and Pati Davis, delivered 55 fresh meals and 55 frozen meals into our community and surrounding area of the county, including Long Creek and Monument. Once a month a large number of meals are taken to, delivered to, and/or picked up by someone from the above areas; this month there were 183 of these meals. Ten people came by to pick up food for today and 25 in-house diners enjoyed a meal in person with visiting and drinks added in. In all, there were a total of 328 meals that went out of our kitchen today. Congratulations, Shay, for a big job well done. Oh yes, Shay has a little help with keeping dishes caught up and help with bagging and serving.

Becky Reinhart was the server for our lunch today, from the First Christian Church. She asked the blessing before we gathered at the window to pick up our lunch of broccoli cheese soup, chicken sandwich, fruit and a chocolate brownie for dessert. Three ladies were very helpful in the kitchen and in the dining room: Jeanette Julsrud, Valeta Grant, and our regular Nancy who is so consistent to help us in the kitchen in any way there is to help. Thank you, Nancy, for being dependable and thank you, Jeanette, for your ability to just get in there and do it all when seeing it needs done. And thank you, Valeta, for being so reliable and able to dig in wherever needed. We sure do appreciate all of you.

Bingo has been postponed for a week or two to get records caught up with the bingo department. Thank you all for being patient while we wait for things to be done.

Thursday, Dec. 14, will be our monthly hall board meeting for our center. Please be in attendance and be prepared to do your part in making decisions and doing your part to make our center more successful and updated. Thanks in advance.

Steve Moyer won the Chester’s gift card, Keith Taylor won the free meal, and Ron Phillips won the 50/50 drawing. Congratulations to all three of you.

On Thursday, Dec. 7, Carol Roe and Sonie Guttu greeted folks as they came in and signed them in and put their names in the drawings.

Sixty fresh meals were delivered throughout the area by Peggy Molnar, Cindy Combs, Jeff and Jodi Cyphers and Rick LaMountain, and 15 meals were picked up by folks who needed to get back to business. Thirty-seven in-house diners enjoyed their meals with visiting and coffee, juice and milk as well.

This is the best place to get a meal with dessert and drinks for a small donation. We are lucky people to have this center to gather in and share company with others and be nourished at the same time. All total we had 112 meals go out of our kitchen today. Good job, Shay, Chris, Valeta, Nancy and Alyssa.

Our servers today were from the First Baptist Church; there was Peggy, Laura, LaDonna, Melahi, Valeta and Pastor Jessie. A lunch of meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, broccoli, rolls, and apple brown betty for dessert was had by all after Pastor Jessie asked a blessing over the meal. Thank you, Pastor Jessie, and all your team for being with us today. We really do appreciate all of our volunteers.

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. We took time to be thankful for all those who went before us to do all they could so we could remain free. We do have so much to be thankful for.

The John Day tai chi group sponsored our meal today. This balance-building group is doing all they can to keep their bodies in balance so they can be safe longer and able to help those who cannot keep up. Thank you all for being with us today and sponsoring our meal. We survive on sponsors and volunteers. We have so much appreciation for all of you who help.

Dave Hamilton won the Chester’s gift card, and Carol Roe won the free meal. Congratulations to both of you.

Psalm 34, 3 & 4 O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

MONUMENT — We had a fine meal of tater tot casserole, green beans, garlic bread, a fresh green salad, and brownies for our dessert. Our cooks, Carrie Jewell and Christy Howell, spoiled us with this yummy food. We thank our cooks very much.

We are praying for our cook Terry Cade. She is awaiting surgery for her knee. We pray that she will be able to get in sooner than expected and that the surgery will go well. We also pray that the healing would be quick and that she would have a new lease on life with more mobility.

Our greeters at the table were Sue Cavender and Linda Abraham. They checked in all the guests, collected and counted up the money. Jan Ensign filled out the paperwork. Judy Harris led us in the flag salute and made the announcements. Yours truly prayed the blessing over the meal. Roger Lawrence was the winner of the free meal ticket.

Heather Riggs had put a bunch of winter clothes, shoes, boots, hats, sweaters, and other cold weather accessories out on the front deck for anyone in need of things to keep them warm this winter. These items were free for the taking. We thank Heather for her thoughtfulness and concern for the community of Monument. We appreciate her and all that she does to help many.

The Monument School will be having their music program Wednesday, Dec. 13. Their concert will begin at 6 p.m. in the school gym.

We had Misty Palmer, Rick LaMountain, Earl Binger, Janet Binger, Gynne Wulfert and Mark Webb join us for lunch. They are all part of the Grant County Senior Citizens Advisory Committee. They had their meeting at the Monument Senior Center before lunch. They were discussing old and new business and doing a recap on events that happened during the fall.

We’ve been having lots of rain and it is really slick, muddy and cold out here. It has been extremely dark here as well. Did you know that it will continue to get darker every day until Dec. 21? After the 21st, the days will slowly get longer. It makes me not want to go out, if you know what I mean. LOL.

My little goats are getting their winter fat going on. Their faces look all chubby, and their bellies are huge. I don’t know if that is because we are feeding them too much? I have been giving them treats of peanuts. Oh, they love it as much as those goat licorice treats. I think the peanuts are cheaper and, if I feel like it, I can eat them too while I give them the peanut treats! Ha.

I need to move goats around again, but I am not looking forward to doing so. I think I will wait until it dries out a little bit. I don’t want to slip and fall in goat poop, ya know. I also need to think about who is going where because not all goats get along, some are bullies and some are just a pain in the butt to try and catch.

Matthew 22:36-38 NIV Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: Love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.

PRAIRIE CITY — It is now three weeks until winter starts. Then the daylight will begin to increase! And how do you suppose that happened, by chance?! Anyway, those of us who are affected by less sunlight in the wintertime take comfort in knowing that “This too shall pass.” In the meantime, we enjoy the artificial lights of the holidays and persevere through the “dark time,” as my friend calls it. Maybe that’s why snow is white. … I measured 4 inches of the wet stuff on top of my new garden planter last week. Yay!

Colin did the announcing and led the flag salute today. Volunteer Teresa Haewood was the winner of the $5 in trade gift card donated by Len’s Pharmacy. The Christmas Elf gift certificates went to Jim Sullens for Roan’s and Jean Kline for Huffman’s. Our volunteers for today included Sharon, Mary, Gwynne and Tonya for delivering; Theresa, Tom and Teresa tended to us in the Hall. Tom asked the blessing and proceeded to the trivia for this day.

Would you believe that there were no famous people born on Dec. 6? Well … lots of people have been born on this day, they just haven’t had time to become famous. In the month of December in 1896, a famous person was born:

Ira Gershwin. A quote from him: “Life is one sweet song, so start the music!”

Amen!! The great actress Agnes Moorehead was born in 1900. Her quote is: “The greatest wealth is health.” Tom listed the most popular baby names for different years in the past. If one was yours or a member of your family, you got to go first to the serving window. Our table was No. 2.

We were served a pancake, scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, French toast and a sausage patty. Moving on over to the “other” table, we picked up some applesauce or an apricot or two, the butter and syrup for the pancake, and leftover birthday cake or doughnut for dessert. There was apple juice and mango/cranberry juice along with coffee, milk and water to wash it all down with. Great meal to get the month of December off to a good start.

We want to thank the John Coombs Ranch and the Slide Mountain Ranch for their donation of beef this fall. Thanks to Pam and Pam, our great cooks. And also Pam, who takes care of the registration books. And I want to thank Jennifer at Prairie Baptist Church and Kim at Bank of Eastern Oregon for scanning and e-mailing this missive for me every week. I really appreciate it! Our Christmas dinner will be on Dec. 20. There will be no meal on the 27th. We will be back on schedule in January with a meal on the 3rd.

Heard a few new Christmas songs lately. Most that I’ve heard in the past have not been memorable. I’m gratified to know that someone is able to come up with melodious tunes and appropriate words to celebrate His birth. The old songs are still more than appropriate, but we humans are always looking for something new, ya know.

Ps. 33:3 Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully and shout for joy. Rev. 5:9 And they sang a new song: … 14:2.3 And I heard a sound from heaven … like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song … 21:5 He Who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”