2010 anderson christmas letter

DONNELLY MINN CHRISTMAS 2010
“Joy to the world the lord is come.” With the words of this familiar Christmas hymn I greet you once again with my annual Christmas letter.
Weather news: The '09-'10 winter was somewhat typical of MN with snow, cold temps, and some storms. Stormy weather on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day forced the cancellation of some services and prevented many people from getting to their destinations. After one last hurrah in late Feb winter left us, and by late Mar most of the snow was gone and we had an early spring. Apr brought more nice weather, and spring field work got started so early this year, that some farmers actually had the luxury of being able to wait with planting until the soil warmed up, and dried out some. Summer brought some of the best growing conditions in many years, with lot of mild temps, and timely rains. As a result all the crops turned out very good this year. A nice fall meant that farmers got their crops out, and fall fieldwork done in a timely fashion. Winter has returned in early Dec, with several inches of snow on the ground and already several storms, plus some minus zero temps.
I put a lot of miles on my car again this year, traveling to many parades (our threshing bee royalty were participants in many of them), community celebrations, fairs, threshing shows, open houses and other events in the area. It is a chance to get off the farm, to see a lot of interesting things and people I do not see too often. I did camp out at several events this fall, so I could spent more time at them. Our annual threshing bee had another successful run this year, next year’s show will be Aug. 27 and 28th ,and will feature John Deere. My cousin’s granddaughter, Baily Armstrong, was crowned little Miss Donnelly. Aanerud field in Donnelly was home to several little league BB games, and women’s sb games this year. Other events included the second annual Daytona 500 party, the ice cream social, Halloween party, second annual holidazzle trim a tree event etc. In early Apr we welcomed the local National Guard troop’s home from Iraq the happy occasion was marred by the news that a neighbor’s grandson was killed over there. I spent some time this year helping my friend Wally McCollar plan a 55 class reunion for his class. The reunion was held in July, since my Mom and Aunt Mabel had taught some of the students in Donnelly, I was asked to represent them at the reunion. Some of the people who went to school in Donnelly had a mini reunion of their own and I joined them as we visited the old school, the bank, and HD & co before having some lunch at sax’s cafe and visiting with some of the people who came to join us. I also attended the informal get together poolside at the prairie inn on Fri. eve, and the class reunion on Sat in the tiger room. It was a very enjoyable weekend for all of us. In early Oct it was announced that Sax’s café in Donnelly was closing as the owner could not afford repairs and upgrades needed to keep it open.
Church news: In Sept for KLCW guest night the play “Godly Women out of History” was presented by individuals from the Cyrus area. I also had a chance to see it a few weeks earlier when it was presented at Trinity in Cyrus. Other events during the year included: two performances of the ss program, Lenten services, parish bible studies, our annual 4th of July celebration, rally sun, a presentation on establishing an endowment fund by Wayne Grunklee from Thrivent, baccalaureate and confirmation services, the ST. J beef supper, the Kong fall festival, several joint services and the usual assortment of pot luck meals. I also attended all the Word Alone meetings in the area again this year. After the March meeting in Hancock, there was a meeting to gauge interest in starting a new church in the area. Sufficient interest was shown to start monthly services in April, in Hancock. Enough people started attending that in July they started holding weekly services in the cougar room of the prairie inn in Morris and in Sept they became the 500th church to the join Lutheran Churches in Missions to Christ. The congregation also decided to buy the Good Shepherd Lutheran church south of Alberta, that had closed last year, and move it to a site near Morris. A farmer donated three acres of land for it. It was moved to the site in late Sept, and a contractor has been working to put it on a foundation, renovate it, and build a fellowship hall. They hope to be able to move into the building sometime next spring. I have attended several services there as my schedule permits.
Family news: Most of you are aware of this year’s sad news, the death of my aunt Pearl (Albert) Anderson on May 26th. She had been ill for some time, and in and out of the hospital, so her death was not totally unexpected. Many family and friends from far and near attended her visitation on May 31st and her funeral at Kong on June 1st. I miss her a lot, because she was not only my aunt, but for the past 22 years had also been my “Mom”. Her daughter, Bev, is now living at Legacy Living in Morris and her house has now been put up for sale. I stop in to see her quite frequently. Her sister Jan, and husband Den still live and work in Alex, my other aunt Pearl is still in Donnelly and selling Avon, my cousin Carl (Billy), his wife Pat, and his sister Elnora still live in S.C. It appears this will be the last year my “family” and I will spend out here on the farm, unless something drastic changes. During the past year I have had a lot of lengthy discussions about my future, with my financial adviser and others. I had hoped to get a job with experience works, but that did not work out, and it does not appear that I have any real prospects of finding any other job. So it appears my only option is to sell the farm, and buy a house either in Donnelly or Morris, and move into it. . I am rapidly running out of money due to a combination of factors i.e. bad luck, carelessness, heavy repair expenses, etc. and need some way to raise enough money to continue to live on. I had originally planned to sell the farm and move this year but for various reasons that did not work out so it will be probably be sometime next year before I do. In the mean time I have been boxing and bagging things up in preparations for a possible move. The main reason I am looking at house is because if I do move I want to keep my “family” with me. Please keep me in your prayers as I decide my future. Other than running to many events, I spend a lot of time on line, when I am home listening to various religious programs. As most of you know I have been writing the Donnelly news for the Morris paper for over three years now and have had a lot of compliments on it. If you do not get the paper you can read it on line on my blog donnellyminn.blogpspot.com. My e-mail ad is aeanders@runestone.net ,due to cell phone problems I have a new # 320-288-8692 I was reelected to the board of the Stevens county genealogical society this year, and am also a member of the Donnelly community club .Efforts to control my diabetes with just pills proved unsuccessful, so I am now on insulin. I still work out several times a week at the rfc in Morris
As I always do this time of the year I pause and remember the family and friends who passed away during the past year, happier occasions were several birthday and wedding anniversary celebrations in the area.
Now may the God of Christmas go before you his year.
Sincerely yours
“Duke”, “Buttons” and Allen
The Anderson’s