If you’re seeing a lot of long faces around town this week, and can’t figure why that would be during the joyous holiday season, more than likely they are the faces of friends and colleagues of longtime and very active residents Mary and Ray Maki, who will be moving to a Dell-Webb community in Fredericksburg, Va. After a head-spinning few short weeks, the Makis accepted an offer on their home and closed this week. “Our heads are swimming and between the packing, we are trying to attend to all the details,” Mary told me late last week. The Makis have dedicated a great deal of their efforts to found and support the Genealogy Club in Newtown, since 2001, and Mary has served as the president of Friends of the C.H. Booth Library for many years, overseeing the annual Book Sale. She is also known for her contributions to the Newtown Remembered oral history books, co-authored with Dan Cruson and Andrea Zimmerman, and was a member of the Garden Club. The move had been in the works, but the Makis were surprised to get and accept an offer that turned around so quickly; their home in the Dell-Webb Celebrate Virginia community is still being built!

On December 14, members of the Genealogy Club managed to corral Ray and Mary for a little send-off party, at which club members presented them with a rooster pillow, “So they’ll always be reminded of our town,” said member Marian Wood. “We’ll miss them, and so will all the ancestor hunters in the area,” she added. The Makis are not exactly homeless until their Virginia house is completed in March, though, says Mary. “We’ll spend Christmas with our son in Glastonbury, and then we’ll make our annual pilgrimage to Florida,” she says. Then they’ll take a couple of weeks to head to Virginia and their new home. “We will miss everyone so much,” Mary laments, but she is pleased to report that Newtown has not heard the last of her: “I promised Friends I would return to help with the Book Sale this summer.”

Until then, we join in with much of this town in wishing only the best to Ray and Mary. Good luck!

There are no long faces around the household of John Boccuzzi, Sr. Since his daughter set him up with a basic set of Christmas villages 20 years ago, he has been adding to them each season. He now has a collection of well over 100 pieces, John says, including a carnival, “and all sorts of accessories and people.”  John switches up the layout at times, and tells me that when he moved to town seven years ago, he set up a replica of Newtown center — sans hills. The family gets to enjoy the miniature winter scene, but so do friends. “My wife does a caroling party every year, and part of the event is seeing the village in action,” says John.

Unlike Family Guy’s brainy dog, Brian, I don’t consider listening to NPR to be animal abuse. I was particularly glad to hear the radio story last week on the mysterious Kmart elves that are popping up around the country. These anonymous elves are showing up at Kmarts (and a couple of Walmarts) where people have laid away presents in hopes of having the money to buy them, and are paying off those layaways, especially for toys. It is the kind of gesture that truly makes for happy holidays.

Via the Associated Press, we hear that a Newtowner, longtime Connecticut educator, and former commissioner of the Department of Education is being recognized with an award that’s been established in his honor. Dr George Coleman, who retired this year after 25 years working for the state, will help select the first recipient of the award named for him. The award was unveiled December 16 as a surprise to Dr Coleman during a forum to discuss ways to help Connecticut’s male minority students succeed in school and aim for college. Dr Coleman worked with the State Education Resource Center to launch that forum as part of a series of events statewide. The award named in his honor was created by the center. Its first recipient will be selected at next year’s forum, in December 2012.

Reed Intermediate School students from 2007 and 2008 will remember the start of the relationship Reed had with the Carolyn A. Miller Elementary (CAME) School in Ghana. RIS teacher Karen King shared some uplifting news with The Bee this week. Her school’s past efforts to raise money to help rebuild the school in Liberia, fund supplies, and more, has led to the Rotary International awarding a $37,500 Global Grant to the New Sight Eye Center in Monrovia, Liberia. Ms King says Newtown Rotarian Brian Amey deserves the credit for this. “To me the best part is that it all started as a pen pal friendship between Newtown kids and Liberia refugee kids, and all that interest and love evolved into a project that is providing sight restoring services to those working to rebuild the homeland of our pen pals,” Ms King wrote in an e-mail this week. “Who would have guessed that a classroom project would have life-changing impact on our friends in Liberia?”

We had a full moon December 10, so that could explain the adventure of one 6-month-old Luna, owned by Mallory Reilly. She decided to climb a tree and didn’t realize how hard it would be to get back down. After her 50-foot climb last Monday morning, it was three days before she was back on terra firma. Calls were made to the town’s dispatch center, the Animal Control office, Your Healthy Pet (who has a fantastic network of animals lovers), and even the first selectman’s office for help and advice, but it wasn’t until Thursday, December 15, that a line crew, subcontracted by CL&P, showed up at the Reilly home. They told Mallory’s mom Kristi that they could no longer bear to hear the kitten crying. The crew had been working along Cedar Hill Road all week, but with no four-wheel drive on the bucket trucks, they couldn’t get close enough to the tree to just lift someone up to the kitten. Thursday morning they asked for permission to cut off the top of the tree, with six guys standing at the ready at the bottom of the tree.

But, when they fired up the chainsaw at the bottom of the tree, Luna climbed even further up! The plan was adapted, and the tree was still cut… and Luna rode one of the branches right down to the ground. She then made a beeline for her house, where her brother was waiting for her. Luna has been in to see Dr Vali at Mt Pleasant Hospital for Animals, and is doing just fine. Sounds to me like little Luna — whose name is Latin for moon — thought she was supposed to get as close to her namesake as possible during the occurrence of the full moon.

The Newtowner Magazine is hosting a Masked Ball, Saturday, February 11, from 7 pm until midnight, in The Alexandria Room at Edmond Town Hall, and I have a feeling it is not too early to get your tickets. Masks, costumes, food, and entertainment will all be part of the fun night. For more information and ticket sales, visit www.TheNewtownerMaskedBall.com.

Hmmm. What’s that I hear? Is it the prancing and pawing of each little hoof? Well, whatever is up on the rooftop, I hope your holidays are happy and that you’ll be filled with enough joy next week to… Read me again.