By Darla Buckhannon

Happy New Year!

Happy birthday to Darrell Chapman, Jory Hitt, Jimmy Johnson, Lee Sadler, Eddie Wells, Colby Devenport, Joshua Eifert, Kori Brown, Georgia Dannenmueller, Kellie Lynn, Tom Essner, Hershel Motes, Bill Beard, Katie Ralph, Chris Whitaker, Norma Graviett, Boyce Boese, Virginia Seyer, Gabe Walter, Ian Eichhorn, Dale Simpson, Mallory Siebert, Bonnie Haney, Tina Jones, Roger Simpson, Kathryn Miller, Danny Lee Finley, Sue Ann Lynn, Kristen Wessel, Annie Ralph, John Hampton, Larry Kirn, Sue Wessel, Sara Hemingway, Laverne Keller, Danny Rains, Terra Owens, Kodi Ballard, Alissa Swindell, Paris Beardslee and Sonny Leible.

Happy anniversary to Bob and Glenda Dacus, Victor and Lisa Powell and Charlie and Teresa Clark.

We hope you all brought in the New Year with good cheer and in good health!

Photo competition

Print out your favorite Christmas/New Year's display pictures and enter the photo contest sponsored by Radiant Reflections Photography and Painted Wren Art Gallery. The deadline is Jan. 7. The entry fee is $10 for three pictures. For more information, go to their respective Facebooks. You may drop off pictures along with your entry fee or mail them to: Painted Wren Gallery, 223 S. Plaza Way, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63703, (573) 579-1000; or Radiant Reflections, 837 N. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63701, (573) 334-4334. The Best of Show will receive $75; the Alternate Best of Show will win $50.

Christmas happenings

Those of you who skipped the Christmas concert and meal at the VFW on Dec. 18 really missed out on good food and all the fun, according to Sue Scheffer of the Chaffee Historical Society. There were well over 100 in attendance. Following the Christmas concert by the Community Band, fruit and candy sacks were delivered to the Chaffee Nursing Center and handed out by Santa Claus. Santa also handed out sacks at the Veterans Home in Cape. The Historical Society thanks all who made this event a success!

Society meetings set

The society meets the first Saturday of each month at the museum. The next meeting is at 10 a.m. on Jan. 7. Big plans are underway for 2017. Membership is only $10 per year and you are invited to be part of enhancing Chaffee's legacy!

Family holiday

Richard and I spent Christmas in San Marcos, Texas, with my sister Ruth Ann. After most of us in the Midwest endured a drastic drop in temperature recently, it was nice to feel the warmer temperatures. Richard and I seldom visit Ruth in San Marcos since the three of us usually get together with my sister Jo and her husband in the Texas Hill Country. With the recent 2-foot snowfall in Wisconsin and with more to come, they stayed put and enjoyed a beautiful white Christmas.

Winter birthdays

By the time you read this, Richard will have celebrated his birthday, opened his gifts and blown out the candles on his coconut cake. The cake was the easy part, the gifts so soon after Christmas were the challenge -- but I know those of you who have family members' birthdays close to Christmas face the same challenge.

Early avian gifts

Richard did get somewhat of an early gift when we attended the Pigeon and Poultry Show in Shawnee, Oklahoma, in early December. We took four Indian fantails and two mookees to the show with the intention of selling them.

As it turns out, he sold one and we returned with five, plus two white Indian fantail hens and a fantail couple that are referred to in the trade as "Milkys." Richard has named them Lovie and Dovie. The male is silver and the female is brown. Richard has assured me that the flock will be reduced accordingly and that long partnered Lovie and Dovie won't be reproducing anytime soon. What did I see one recent warm afternoon? The pair being very lovie dovie!

Wishes for 2017

Regardless of how you welcomed the new year, we wish you the very best in 2017! Did you happen to eat 12 grapes New Year's Eve for good luck through 2017? We hope you will share some of your traditions and resolutions with us. As members of the First Baptist Church of Chaffee, my family often brought in the new year at church singing "Blest Be the Tie That Binds."

Final thoughts

Remember to tell those special people in your life that you love them -- those three words mean so very much and are so nice to hear, especially this time of year.

Please email your news to darbuck2@airmail.net or leave a message at (573) 887-6430 or (214) 207-7839.

And then ...

Then there was the year 2016 as we heralded in the new year of 2017.