January 3, 2018 News

Happy New Year

Birthdays: January 3, Alberta Kreisel, Melvin Simmerman; January 4, Lisa Day, Debi Schuckman, Myron Schuckman; January 55, Darwin Herdman, Clayton Wilson, Debbie Gaunt; January 6, Cheryl Lamer, Judy Hugh, Father Ultan Murphy; January 7, Craig Higgins, Richard Mills;January 8, Randy Taylor, Jeffrey Anderson, Randy Taylor, Stuart Clancy; January 9, Jason Casey, Clinton Kershner, David Bisagno.

No anniversaries.

Burr. Hope everyone survived this past weekend.

Father Ultan Murphy's address is River Bend Assisted Living, 3620 Broadway, Room 23, Great Bend, KS 67530. We are happy to know that he can drive around wherever he wants to go

There were 40 at mass on Saturday evening with Father Eric. Those helping with the mass were Twila Higgins, Roy and Phyllis Conrad, Michele Moran; rosary by Don and DeAnna Bergquist, Twila, Pat Petz; server, Allie Seltman (Allie is a server at Holy Trinity) lector, DeAnna Bergquist; Collection, Jason Moran and Mike Keith; organist, Susan Keith; choir Michele Moran, Shannon and Susan Keith and Arline Rues, gifts, Pat and DeAnna. The mass was in memory of Danny Petz. We were pleased to have Pat Showalter and her family at mass. The church was decorated beautifully.

Faith Sharing will begin again on Monday, January 8 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Mary's Rectory. All are welcome.

Our sympathy to the family of Anthony J. (Tony) Schlitter, 85 who died December 10, 2017 at Delaware Hospice Center in Milford, Delaware. He was a 1950 graduate of McCracken High School.His parents were the late John and Katherine Schlitter. He was the last surviving member of his 15 siblings. He is survived by his wife, Loretta of 62 years and one son. A full military burial was held at Henlopen Memorial Park in Milton.

Jean, Frank, Kenny, Roxene and J.W. enjoyed eating Christmas Dinner in Ransom at the VFW

Christmas Eve guests at Jean Oelkers home were Bob and Shelley, and Tony and Dyan Axman. Gifts were exchanged and food consumed.

This Christmas was extra special this year for the Stremel family. The family got a new addition on November 30th. Eli George Kearn came into this world. It was extra special because his military dad, Tyler, was home on his ten day leave to help his mother, Molly Knight Kearn bring him into this world. His grandparents are LeAnn and Barry Knight and great-grandmother Shirley Bundy. Of course, this brought almost all of the family to the Knight household to check out the new addition. Over a three day run the following came to spoil him. Shirley Bundy, Hutchinson; John Coykendall, Kingman; Celeste and Dale Davis, Memphis, TN; Denise and Norman Fuller, boys and Paige, Miltonvale; Jordan Knight and Courtney, Carolyn and Dave Davenport, Hutchinson, Travis and Tina Elias, Colby, Katie Elias, Overland Park, and Tanner Elias, Manhattan; Lanette and David Kaster, Overland Park and Mary Kaster, Manhattan; Ty and Quintin Elias and friend Stetson Moody and other numerous friends stopping in. Everyone decided he definitely was a keeper. Tyler will be home in March.

One of Quintin's gifts from his dad was he could take a friend and stay in a motel with a pool. Tuesday they went to the Urban Air Trampoline facility in Wichita and back to Hutch to visit the Underground Salt Museum. Later they took Carolyn out to eat and returned home,

Christmas Day dinner was hosted by Shirley Bundy. The meal was enjoyed by Celeste and Dale Davis, Lanette, David, and Mary Kaster and Carolyn and Dave.Davenport.

Alicia and Leigh , Rose and Les, Cathy and Ron, Catherine, Alex and John Casey and Tim all celebrated Christmas with Arline Rues at her home in McCracken.

Martin, Mary, Carrie, Joe, Cyndi and Ryan Higgins were Christmas eve dinner guests of Paula (Mary's sister) and Gino Corte of Gladstone, Missouri. Gino's daughter Nunzia, her husband Reggie and daughters Annie and Stella were also guests along with several of Gino's other relatives. As Paula is a fabulous cook the dinner was wonderful --- dishes too numerous to count. The children all received early Christmas gifts from the aunts and uncles and grandparents. A fun time was had by all."

What a grrrrrrrreat Christmas. Our Christmas dinner guests were: Marlene, Bob, Shari Funk, Anita, Jeff Butler, Holly, Brett, Courtney, and Erica Gilbert. Haily and Brandt Rogers, and Kade Hagans. Holly baked the turkey and Brett grilled the ham. The rest of us filled in with lots of other goodies to eat. Blessed with news that 2 of our great nieces, Mason Weber and Ursula Butler received diamonds. We are all excited to welcome Dakota and Nat into the family plus the arrival of baby Rogers in May!!! 2018 holds a lot of promise and hope for our family. Wilson Christmas get together is Sunday, Dec. 30 at the Funk house in Wakeeney. More fun to be had. Joy and gratitude in our hearts for all the prayer support for Mr. 'Babe' this past year. Love the song: Count Your Blessings......Happy New Year from our family to yours..

Ronn and Laura Martin and Aidan came to stay with Arlyn and Jan North for the Christmas holidays. Sarah came after finishing her finals at KSU. Carson North had a big fan club cheering for himon the Ellis Railroaders junior high basketball team on that Monday night.

Christmas dinner guests with Arlyn and Jan North were the Ronn Martin family, the Heath North family, and the Ted North family. It was a fun, fun day.

Arlyn and Jan North and Frank and Elaine Littler enjoyed their annual Christmas dinner together. It was extra special this year as they were joined by both their daughters-Brenda and her husband Carl Rosenlund from Houston, TX and Laura and her husband Ronn Martin from Arlington, TX.

Visiting Thursday at the home of Arlyn and Jan were Larry and Joyce Eisenhour of Salina, their son Mitch and grandson Jacob of Newport News, VA, Dwight and Sherri Eisenhour and their daughter Melissa McDowell of Cimarron, Elaine Littler and her son-in-law Carl Rosenlund from Houston, TX.

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Patricia Petz (Jan. 1):

I recently found an article that seemed quite interesting for this time of year.  Many times we find the word Xmas used to mean Christmas.  Some people don't think it's correct to call Christmas "Xmas" as that takes the "Christ" (Jesus) out of Christmas.  (As Christmas comes from Christ-Mass, the Church service that celebrated the birth of Jesus.) But that is not quite right!  In the Greek Language and alphabet, the letter that looks like an X is the Greek letter chi/X (pronounced 'kye' - it rhymes with 'eye') which is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ, Christos. The early church used the first two letters of Christos in the Greek alphabet 'chi' and 'rho' to create a monogram (symbol) to represent the name of Jesus.  This looks like an X with a small p on the top: "Le-sous Christos Theou Huios So-te-r" which in English means "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour". The second letter of these five letters is X or Christos!  So Xmas can also mean Christmas; but it should also be pronounced "Christmas" rather than "ex-mas"! 

As I understand, many families were hit hard with the flu bug during the Christmas season and my family was no exception!  Both of my grandsons, Drake and Grant, received the bug early Christmas morning and Kelly and his family were hit with the bug the next day!  I was afraid that it was something that they had eaten but found out that many others, that were not family members, were down with the bug as well. Thank goodness neither mom nor I got the flu bug.  I guess it was nice that I had an early Christmas this year!    

The boys were feeling much better by Tuesday afternoon, so we made a visit to Grandma Dolores's house to wish her a very Merry Christmas!  It's so easy to become attached to those little ones and when they have to leave it's so hard to say good bye.  We have so much fun when we are together! 

Although it was super cold, many people attended mass at the beautifully decorated St. Mary's Catholic Church in Mc Cracken on Saturday evening.   This was a very special mass for me as the intentions were for my husband, Danny.  I was honored to be asked to take the gifts to Father Eric. Deanna Bergquist was kind enough to help me and the mass was completed with beautiful music, and seeing many friends. 

I'm sure many people were out and about to celebrate New Year's Eve, however, I opted to stay in the comfort of my nice, warm home!  I sincerely hope that each of you have a very Blessed, Healthy, and Happy New Year during 2018!