Now that you have all your ornaments put away for the year, it’s time to get yet another one. In honor of the town’s 2005 tercentennial, the Newtown Woman’s Club has issued a pewter ornament, the latest in its series of annual ornaments. The design of the ornament is the town’s official logo for the tercentennial. Normally, the Woman’s Club offers its ornaments for the holidays, but the tercentennial version will be offered throughout the year. The $10 ornament, crafted by Woodbury Pewterers, is available for purchase at Edmond Town Hall, C.H. Booth Library, The Newtown Bee, Lexington Gardens, and The Drug Center.

The organ at Newtown Congregational Church was quiet last Sunday. Organist Phil Crevier bundled up and flew to Minnesota for his annual ice-fishing trip. The report so far has him hauling only fish out of the ice hole this year, no cell phones… but that’s another story. Ask Phil about it sometime.

Members of the Lions Club are again seeking donations to put together “care packages” and send them to local troops who are serving in Iraq. The club is asking for personal care items, nonperishable snacks, games and other items for the care packages and also cash donations to pay the postage to mail them, which is the most reliable way of getting the packages to the troops.  The Lions plan to send the care packages by February 15 and will announce a collection point for the donations soon.

Friends and relatives surprised Catherine Knapp with a 95th birthday party last Saturday night at the Hawleyville Firehouse. Catherine told me this week she was very surprised and had a great time catching up with old friends and relatives from throughout the area and from as far away as New York City, Pennsylvania, and Hawaii. She was born on January 6, 1910, in Pound Ridge, N.Y., but by 1911 her family had moved to Sandy Hook, where she still lives today. Catherine wanted to be sure that I passed along her many thanks to all who made her birthday party such a special one.

Catherine wasn’t the oldest birthday girl this week. Doug Rogers’ mother, Dorothy Taplin Rogers, celebrated her 100th birthday on January 11 at the River Glen Health Care Center in Southbury.

Justin Moser, a longtime emergency telecommunications dispatcher for the town and an assistant fire chief at Newtown & Hook Ladder, has just started work as a full-time paid firefighter for Westport Fire Department. Justin’s first day of work in his new post was Wednesday. As a firefighter in Westport, I expect he will be going on many calls in the densely developed suburb. Justin plans to stay on part-time as a dispatcher for the town, according to Corey Robinson. Good luck in your new position, Justin.

Church Hill Road looked pretty much like a toboggan run on Tuesday evening as commuters slid their way from the flagpole to Sandy Hook Center. Everyone’s brake pedal was an invitation to adventure. The normally staid, glazed expressions of commuters became quite animated as they executed 180s and a 360s or two — mouths open wide, eyes big as plates. Fortunately, most of the accidents that slippery night were fender benders, and everyone made it home eventually with tales to tell.

I’ll have plenty more tales to tell next week, so be sure to…

Read me again.