by Melba Edwards

Someone made a mistake when they placed Halloween and Thanksgiving dates so close to Christmas! There is just too much going on to keep up with the work these holidays bring. I have only a few things to remember dates of for the rest of the year.

The Coffee Cafe is still open weekdays but closed holidays and weekends at the Zanesville Community Church of God.

Our Edwards Family Christmas is over. We were lucky to be able to rent the United Methodist fellowship/gym in Ossian and we thank them for that pleasure. The younger ones were glad to play a lot of basketball and no one got hurt. Counting our kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, all the spouses, boyfriends, and girlfriends we had a total of just under 70. My niece Rita Botts Zeddis and her spouse Linn came to the celebration as they were sick and missed Thanksgiving.

This year, 2023, we had two weddings, a new grandson and two new great-grandbabies. Fifteen years ago we added six new babies!

The Zanesville Lions Community Party went well even though it was a terrible night with very high winds. All the decorations on the fence were blown down and will have to be put up again. I am wondering if our scene at Ouabache State Park suffered damage and I will call about that.

There were about 50 present for the evening to have chili and hot dogs and to play free bingo and get a free picture with Santa. The Santa we usually have could not come as he had a tooth pulled so luckily my great-grandson filled in and did a good job,

Dale Best took the pictures using his mother Annette’s fabulous camera and printer that hands you a great picture in a short time. Annette, his mother, was present also to help out. She is 95 years young and likes to help the Lions Club when she can.

There were lots of bingo prizes and those present had a great time playing. Lions members provided the prizes, Santa’s treats, and the free pictures. Thanks to you who bought some apple dumplings and provided donations. We still have apple dumplings if you need some for $3 each. They are frozen but fully cooked and come with caramel syrup on the side.

Our wreaths on wooden crosses are still available and are $5 each.

Lions members present were Herman and Ann Hans, Melanie Martin, Larry Herron, Melba Edwards, Steve Keesler, Cheri Steed, Tom and Cheryl Tracey, and Robin Phillips. John Schuhmacher and his wife Eileen were present also to help out. Thanks to John who helped out Larry Herron to get the pavilion and other things winterized.

I told you the wind was terrible and when I went home about 9:30 I discovered I didn’t have a dial tone on my home phone. I called the next morning to report that to the company and after answering many questions I was to have an appointed time for them to check the outage out. About 15 minutes later I got a text message on my cellphone to disregard the appointment as others are also out in the area.

As the new year approaches we at the Lions Club will be looking at some fundraisers. If you are interested in collectible war and war heroes books we may have a sale soon. Give me a call on my home phone and leave a message. I also have donated several framed pictures to the Lions and am willing to show them to you on a warmer day if you are looking to buy some.