If you think you see an additional star glowing in the sky this weekend, I have no doubt at all that it is there to mark the exit of a wonderful friend who, along with his pals Rosie and Starr, has given that homelike quality to The Bee office. Our dear pal Deeke, the chocolate Lab, who calmly greeted visitors here (and sometimes required them to step over him), is playing fetch with the angels. We will miss the mad thumping of his tail against the desks as he greeted the editorial staff each Monday morning, his grunts of pleasure when just the right spot got scratched, and the trail of toys he left in his wake. Goodbye, Deeke. We love you.

Newtown’s fire companies and are looking for your support this weekend. ON Saturday, November 20, all five of Newtown’s volunteer fire companies will work together for the tenth annual Fill The Fire Truck Food Drive, which is again being coordinated by Sandy Hook EMT Captain Karin Halstead. From 9 am until 2 pm, members of Sandy Hook, Hawleyville, and Hook & Ladder will be at The Big Y on Queen Street, while members of Botsford and Dodgingtown will be in front of Stop & Shop in Sand Hill Plaza, 228 South Main Street. Both locations will serve as drop-off points for food, money, and gift cards of any value — pet food is welcome, too. At the end of the collection hours, all donations will be delivered to FAITH Food Pantry in Sandy Hook.

John and Jane Vouros are used to hosting guests from all over the world at The Dana-Holcombe House on Main Street, but this past week they had a visitor from France who was in our lovely village for a special reason. Helene Buzy-Pucheu, of Paris, discovered five years ago that she had a cousin living in Sandy Hook. She connected with Denise and Cary Correia and their family via the Internet. “They were very surprised to hear from me,” Helene told me during a breakfast visit last week. “They had not a lot of knowledge of their French family,” she said, just as the French Buzy-Pucheus had also lost touch with their American relatives. Denise’s father and Helene’s father were first cousins, and had known each other well before Denise’s father emigrated to America.

This year, Helene decided to take a sabbatical from her work as a lawyer, from September to December, and as part of her worldwide tour “visiting everywhere from Bali to China,” she included a stop here to meet her long-lost cousin. “I was a little nervous,” Helene confessed to me, but the cousins hit it off and were able to spend several days getting to know each other. “We had a lot to share with our ancestors in common,” said Helene, “and were both curious about our families — and thankful for the Internet and the new technology that allowed us to meet!” Then on Saturday, it was Au Revoir! and Helene was off to continue her further adventures.

If getting your family to “Smile for the camera!” is a challenge, maybe a professional can help. Newtown Youth Academy is sponsoring NYA Family Photo Days” Sunday, November 21, and Saturday, November 27, in conjunction with Kim Jaeckel Family Photography. Each half-hour session will be in a private, upstairs room at NYA. Donations of new toys for Toys For Tots will be collected during this event, as well. A portion of the money raised at NYA Family Photo Days will go to support NYA. For appointments or more information, call Kim at 203-426-4493 or sign up at Newtown Youth Academy.

I think I can bestow my Good Egg Award to Dr Joshua Baum and his staff, as well as the Ebert family and friends, this week. Dr Baum generously donated hundreds of toothbrushes to an orphanage in Salonta, Romania. Jenna and Kate Ebert, and Nate Crevier, all NHS graduates, will deliver the toothbrushes to the orphanage on Thanksgiving Day, and along with the rest of Jenna and Kate’s family, will put together furniture there, as well. Kate and Jenna are the daughters of Kim and Bill Ebert, IBM employees, who along with their youngest daughter, Carleigh, are presently living in Budapest, Hungary. Kim works with Madame Fabiny at the American International School of Budapest, a French teacher there, to schedule these work visits. Seems like a truly thankful way to spend Thanksgiving. So here’s a big Thank You to Dr Baum and all!

Here’s something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season: Newtown High School’s football team is scheduled to play its first game at the renovated Blue and Gold Stadium on Thanksgiving Eve, when Masuk visits for the 7 pm kickoff of the South-West Conference championship game. NHS cheerleaders will be on hand, too, to collect gently used work shoes, work boots, and hiking boots to donate to Haiti Works in an effort to assist the people of Petionville, Haiti. Rah! Rah! Rah! Go Newtown!

I’m pretty excited about the upcoming tree lightings — one at Ram Pasture on Friday, December 3, at 6:30 pm, followed by a celebration in Sandy Hook Center on Saturday, December 4, with festivities at 4:30 pm and lighting at 6:30. One of the best things about the holiday kick-off weekend is the way our town sparkles, with luminarias lining the streets. But just a reminder to those who are setting out the luminarias: please be sure to fill the paper boxes with sand at least up to the level of the decorative cutout. That way, it will take an awesome breath of wind for the luminaria and lit candle to blow over. The fire marshal has also requested this year that all luminarias be extinguished those evenings by 10 pm. That still gives us plenty of time to feel the glow!

As for me, I will certainly be aglow if I know that next week you plan to…. Read me again.