• Saturday-What'sUP December 20 - 07:18 pm

Lake Linden-Hubbell Elementary school held their annual Christmas music program, directed by Jennifer Johnson-Fritz and was great entertainment with a theme of Christmas Bells. All the kids are decked out in their nicest clothes and wearing their best smiles as they belt out the words to a variety of Christmas songs. They played to a packed room and the cameras were definitely flashing all around the auditorium. That's the third graders in the first photo and the first graders in the middle photo. My Grandson, is the good looking young man in the back row, wearing a red shirt.

It was a full day of Christmas activities for the youngsters, with Santa visiting the school that same evening to listen to the kids requests. Santa's helpers gave each kid a nice bag of goodies to take home with them, courtesy of the Lake Linden-Hubbell Lions Club. This also is an annual event and one the kids really enjoy. Most of them sit on Santa's lap to tell him what they want, but in the bottom photo, my 2 year old Grandson decided he liked the seat right next to Santa instead and he didn't let Daddy get far from him either. :->

In the late 80's I played Santa Claus at a place in downtown Detroit called Trappers Alley, which is now something else. It was going pretty good, the kids were excited to see me as I walked around and waved and tried to HO! HO! HO! as low as I could. As I walked through the place to go to the bathroom there were (3) men standing there in their 3 piece business suits. As I waved to them they said 'Merry Christmas- SANDY. I looked at my santas helper and said, 'I am busted.' I was no where near the ladies bathroom when they said that to me.

I got back to Santas castle to take some pictures with kids and a man came in with his little daughter. As he was standing next to me he looked at me and said, 'ho ho ho for me. I pointed at my throat as if it was sore. Then he looked at me and said, 'who is in there?' My helper took the picture. It was funny when that man looked at me and said that. It was so much fun, though. I have a couple pictures of me getting ready.

Awe, Mary, You put a big grin on my face this morning with the pictures. Brought back all those memories of doing the same thing as a child in Calumet. Singing on stage and thinking we had our best clothes on...

Every time I see a school Christmas play it reminds me of my 4th & 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Koepel. We had 42 kids in our classroom. We did a program about Christmas around the world. It included homemade costumes, props, lines and singing. Singlehandedly, she kept us all in line. An amazing lady I will always remember.

That's so nice that they still do that UP there. It's not politically correct to have a Christmas program out here. Our kids haven't been able to have one in years. It's sad for the children who believe in Christmas to not be able to put on a program for their parents. We used to love it when we were kids, and so did our parents.

It is something that people come to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and tell us we can not say Merry Christmas because they are offended in someway. If we went to their country we would have to respect them and their ways. It is not only other people who come into this country, there are people here who do it, too.

I will continue to say 'MERRY CHRISTMAS'

We are suppose to be getting some more snow. I made a little snowman for the bench outside of our front door. I should make a couple more to make a family.

Our grandson Tim Ozanich just perfomed in the annual Christmas Pageant here at Our Lady Of LaSallette in Berkley. He thought he was a goat, but turns out he was the donkey. A visiting Priest did the service and was great. Tim is following a long family tradition. According to my sister, the best sister in the world, her class was putting on a pageant and I got the plumb role of Jesus. Well then she has told me, and I have a hard time believing this, that I refused to participate and cried the whole time. This occured at St. Cecilia school in the basement. I have many fond memories of Christmas in Hubbell. Why even one time Santa read my letter on the radio. He was visiting in Calumet. This was in 1948, oh what a great holiday it was. The memories are vividly in place in my mind.
The next year I got to be an altar boy at Midnight mass. After mass we had tortier and believe it or not Santa was there while we were in church. Grandma stayed home and she told me all about him being there. Since we had no fireplace he came in the front door. She said she had to clean up the snow that he brought in. I hope my grandkids can have memories as great as I do.

It's so nice to see the kids do that .
I wish the sign said Merry Christmas instead.
It's to bad we have to cater to the people that are coming into our country

Michael Du Long (Mikie)
"After mass we had tortier …"
Oh my gosh, like Abu Ghraib? For the kiddies after mass?

After our president-elect takes the oath of office, maybe we'll finally really outlaw tortier!

Maybe we should we resort to tourtière instead?

(Probably shoulda posted on the joke page?)

I went to my nephew's Christmas program at the Barkell elementary school. One would have thought it was a major high school event. There was standing room only in the gym and I had to park my car two blocks away and walk to the school. It was so wonderful to see all the people there to watch the little ones perform their songs. They even sang song about Jesus----what a wonderful sound that was. There were Mom's and Dad's, grandparents and lots of little brothers and sister too young to attend school. Even the superintendent of the schools was there to show support.The kids looked so cute in their holiday dresses and ties---so proud to sing for their families. The UP is truly the place to raise your family---we are so fortunate to live here.
Woke up this morning and saw a beautiful wolf sitting on the ice in front of our house on the lake. By the time I got the camera, it went into the woods. It was a beautiful creature.!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYBODY!!!!!

My dear friend Frank. Spell check wouldn't give me the correct spelling. Glad you are around to keep my limited knowledge and spelling in check. Thanks for taking the time to let me know how to spell tourtiere, unfortunately I can't find an umlaut on my keyboard. Hope you are having a nice Christmas and will have a prosperous New Year. The only thing that I have that you don't is a yard full of snow. Bet ya miss it don't ya? After all these years I find out that the Pork pies were really torture devices.

I AGREE WITH mickill mouse. I WILL ALSO COMTINUE TO SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS. DON'T WANT TO LOSE THIS PART OF THE SEASON, LIKE THE REST OF THE THINGS WE ARE LOSING. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

I love the pictures of the kids at the Christmas show. To bad the banner says- Happy Holidays- instead of Merry Christmas, but you do not want to ruin it for the kids and what they are doing.

I had a friend who believed in telling her daughter the truth about everything. One Christmas I asked her if she believed in Santa Claus? She looked at me and said, 'I believe in the stores.' I truly did not know whether to laugh or say something else. I just looked at her and asked her what would she like for Christmas. Now she is all grown up with 2 kids of her own.

We are getting more snow.

Okay, wise guys, Frank & Mikie, what the heck IS "tortier" or "tourtiere" (with the 'phzt' mark over the e)? hey?

We have traditional French Canadien Tourtiers (toot-yah)after Midnite Mass..here is one recipe..I made 2 this year and enjoyed the first one and second is saved for Christmas Eve.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tourtiers-French-Pork-Pie/Detail.aspx

kay Moore (Mskatie):
"… what the heck IS 'tortier' or 'tourtiere' …"

Are you serious?
Just click the link — the word tourtière, in italics (also in color and underlined, 'cuz it's a link) in my post above and all will be explained!

I did anticipate that quite a few folks wouldn't know that!

Ooops, looks like Eddyfitz (Eddyfitz) just beat me to it!

Well for heavens sake...mom called it pork pie. It's just like my French Canadian side of the family,(I call that my onery side)!

I will always say "Merry Christmas". Mr. Deb says he wants to put a sign out in our yard that says, "It's Merry Christmas or get the h..l out of here." He's really very subtle!!!

My uncle Frenchy aka Clyde Clouthier from Hubble could make one of them wadyamacallits. I knew they were two of the same thing, and the pork pie's kept coming cause they were so good. 3/4 Finn and 1/4 French Canadian.Am I on the safe side MsKati?

https://pasty.com/discus/

Micky D.,
There ought to be an easier way, but it is worth reading.