A time for giving and sharing
Winner number 17 of the 2nd Annual St. Joseph’s Catholic Church 52-week gun raffle was drawn Sunday, Dec. 19. The winner of a Citadel Pax 12ga. Shotgun is John Eggelton of Katy. The next drawing will take place Sunday, Dec. 26.
Christmas is a time of giving and sharing! Are you in need of a Christmas Eve meal? Or do you know of someone who is? Join St. Stanislaus Catholic Church for lunch from 12-2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 24 at the parish hall, 1511 Texas Hwy. 90 in Anderson. Everyone is welcome! For information on how you can help, or if you would like to donate, please contact Jenni Abraham, 979- 229-2360 or Christie Leman, 281-705-4550.
Speaking of giving and sharing, Tom Johanson received a new kidney from a donor Monday, Dec. 6. What a wonderful Christmas present that he will never forget! Tom has been on the kidney transplant list for quite a while now and his dream finally came through. He is home now and doing quite well. Tom says he is ready to get over this and try to get his life back into some kind of normalcy. Congratulations Tom!
We are so proud of our grandson Luke Waitz. Luke is in the 2nd grade at Anderson-Shiro Elementary. A couple of weeks ago, he competed in the U.I.L. competition in Music Memory. The competition consisted of students from four different school districts – Anderson-Shiro, New Waverly, Onalaska and Trinity. Luke placed first overall individual and his team placed second. Congratulations to Anderson-Shiro CISD who, after all the points were tallied, came in first place overall. Great job!
Charlie and Kathie Wendt of Iola were married 50 years ago on Dec. 23, 1971. The family threw this sweet couple a “come and go” wedding anniversary celebration Sunday afternoon, Dec. 19 at the Iola Community Center. Attendees enjoyed a lunch with refreshments, but most of all, they enjoyed visiting with the Wendt’s and their children and reminiscing about the good old days up to the present times. As I’m writing this, I was thinking that my parents would not have been happy with me wanting to get married two days before Christmas – I’m guessing their parents weren’t either! But here we are, 50 years later Charlie and Kathie are still going strong. Congratulations and best wishes for many more!
Also, on Sunday afternoon, a birthday party was held at PowerSports in College Station for one of our granddaughters’ seventh birthday. Brooklyn Grace Branch was born Christmas Eve morning and I remember that morning well. I procrastinated Christmas shopping that year and planned to finish my shopping that morning. So, I got up really early and was sitting at the kitchen table making my list and checking it twice! Somehow, I didn’t hear the phone ring, but I was making progress. So around 6:30 a.m. it rang again and this time I answered it wondering who would be calling this time of the morning. It was my son Clint Branch who frantically said, “if you want to be here when this baby is born you better get here NOW.” I threw on some clothes and rushed to College Station. About an hour or so later Brooklyn was born. Uhhh, so much for Christmas shopping that day but I did learn a good lesson that day and never waited until the last day again.
Happy Birthday to those celebrating this week: Dec. 24 – Brooklyn Grace Branch, Christy Eve Agan; Dec. 25 – Linda Copley; Dec. 26 – Charlie Mentlewski; Dec. 27 – Gwyn Foy, Blaine Sechelski, Barbara Szymczak, Diane Arteburn, Maegan Bateman, Kie Belinowski, Kristin Fernandez, Jeff Sicinski, Sarah Blake, Kayla Lara, Kevin Smith, Jr.; Dec. 28 – Lois Barnfield, Chris Countryman, Lauren Vezurk, Donny Yargo, Hannah Gallo, Melinda Merola; Dec. 29 – John Wren, Billy Dan Schroeder, Martha McCleney, Aubrie Schroeder.
Happy Anniversary to those celebrating this week: Dec. 27 – Donovan and Marcy Pavlock, seven years; Brett and Rebecca Holtey, 20 years.
Once again, Don and I have lost some very dear loved ones this past year but cherish the family and friends we still have with us today and thank God for all the wonderful people in our lives. Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a happy, safe and healthy new year.
If you have special news about what goes on in your family or life, let me know by calling 936-870-6842 or email me at gailmsowell@yahoo.com.