Congratulations to the Newtown High School football team for winning the South-West Conference Title last Thursday night, November 20, shutting out Brookfield 42-0. This win makes Title #3 in a row for our local high school team. Two paws up to all of the team members, coaches, parents, and fans!

Newtown High School World Language Department needs a host family for NHS Chinese guest teacher Amanda Zhang, starting January 1. Host families receive a stipend of $150 a month. Host families provide room and board, and may need to offer transportation. If you are interested in becoming a host family and learning about another culture, contact greenfieldp@newtown.k12.ct.us, as soon as possible.

A celebration of Sandy Hook Promise, this past Sunday, November 23, at Newtown Congregational Church, was a treat for all who attended. Several songs performed by the Newtown Youth Voices, and music by special guest Peter Yarrow (That’s right: of Peter, Paul and Mary fame), as well as the Flagpole Radio Café Band, added up to a fine program. Speakers, including Mark Barden and Nicole Hockley, both of whom lost children to 12/14, reminded the audience at the concert and anyone listening to the live radio broadcasts, of the need for continued education and change in culture concerning gun violence. What? You haven’t taken the Promise? Visit www.sandyhookpromise.org to find out more.

I heard that a lot of Newtowners and area friends of Peter Van Buskirk’s were feeling kind of jumpy last Saturday night, as they celebrated the tenth anniversary of his 50th birthday. Luckily, they were at the Sky Zone Trampoline Park in Bethel…

Maybe we were hasty in singing our “Rain, rain, go away” song on Monday. I think I prefer the plain wet stuff to the heavy white stuff taking away our balmy last days of autumn.

The lucky diners at Maplewood At Danbury were able to feast their eyes on some special artwork on Thursday. Fraser Woods Montessori School’s Helping Hands Club created and donated Thanksgiving-inspired centerpieces that were going to be used at Maplewood At Danbury. Club members decorated recycled Starbucks tea cans in fall colors, then donated the creations in time for Thanksgiving.

Leftover turkey doesn’t have to be a reheated mass of meat. Here’s a turkey sandwich that is a fabulous way to recreate this coming Thursday’s leftover turkey. Maybe some of the local snowbirds have visited the Tampa Bay, Fla., region, and stopped in to a Lonni’s Sandwich shop. No longer owned by the original Lonni, nonetheless, her original sandwich creation, “Ron’s Sunny Bird,” got a shout-out from Nate Berkus (a former Lonni’s customer, I’ve learned) on the Rachel Ray Show, last Thursday morning. Pile sliced turkey between thick slabs of whole grain bread (the real Sunny Bird uses wild rice bread, but good luck finding that) spread with cream cheese, honey French dressing, alfalfa sprouts, and a sprinkling of sunflower seeds. As Rachel would say, “Delish!” I’ll add a meow to that.

You can get plenty of post-Thanksgiving exercise trotting from store to store in Newtown on Saturday, November 29. Shop Local is the cry of the Economic Development Commission, supporting Small Business Saturday. There may not be a more pleasant way to get your holiday shopping done, and it all benefits our local economy.

Hold back on a little of your holiday shopping, though, if you have book lovers in the family. The Friends of the C.H. Booth Library presents its annual Holiday Book and Gift Sale, Saturday and Sunday, December 6 and 7. These gift-quality, new and like-new books cover just about every subject you can think of, and the prices fit the tightest of budgets. Won’t it be nice to know, too, that all of the money from the sales of books goes to support our local library? The sale is in the Meeting Room of the C.H. Booth Library, December 6, from 9:30 am to 5 pm, and on December 7, from noon to 5 pm.

If shopping holds no appeal for you, why not celebrate the obscure Make Your Own Head Day, Friday, November 28? You can use any art medium you want — paper mache, paint, charcoal, clay — but the head you recreate should be your own image. Now, I’m not really certain what you do with this memento of you, but it certainly seems like a fun way to pass the afternoon. I’m thinking about using a medium of cat litter, catnip, and dust bunnies bound up with cream…

Speaking of books, new and like-new books for elementary aged children are being collected at Wishing Well in Sandy Hook Center, Monday through Friday, until December 5. The books will be delivered to an elementary school in Washington, DC, when Newtown residents travel to the nation’s capitol for the Second Annual National Vigil for Victims of Gun Violence, December 11.

I’m putting an “x” on my calendar for Sunday, December 14, when Newtown Choral Society presents its winter concert. The local singing group, under the direction of Mary Andreotta, has been working since September on selections for the holiday season. Just $10 gets you in the door ($8 if you are a senior citizen) for the 3:30 pm concert at the meeting house. Carols and Lullabies, songs with a southwestern flair, and Dave Brubeck’s Psalm 30 are the featured pieces, along with lots of takes on familiar holiday tunes. Give yourself the gift of music, before the season gets too crazy.

“Over The River And Through The Woods” will have turned to “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas,” the next time my paws hit the keyboard. There’s more to come each week, if you open the paper and… Read me again.