I hope you all enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday, and that the snow storm was not too disruptive for you. We are now into December and that brings Christmas and many things to do. In all your rushing about, do take time for things like the Wiscasset Town Tree Lighting on Saturday, Dec. 6 and the Breakfast with Santa on Saturday, Dec. 13.

At the 12th annual Breakfast with Santa there will be cookies for sale that have been made by Senior Center members. The breakfast runs from 8 to 10 a.m. with Santa arriving at 8:45 a.m. Start the weekend off with a good breakfast and stock up on cookies. What is Christmas without cookies?

Now for all you bowlers, here is a hint from one person in our bowling league. I will not divulge his name for rather obvious reasons. To get the best action from your 10-pin bowling ball it needs to be cleaned once in a while.

Grime and oil tend to coat the surface of the ball and this can affect the curving of the ball especially if you throw a hook ball. You can clean the ball by hand but it takes a bit of time and effort.

The hint offered by this one bowler was to run it through a cycle in your dishwasher. Additional advice offered was to be sure to remove any dishes before you do this. If you choose not to tell your spouse, it probably would be a good idea to run the dishwasher through a cleaning cycle after you wash the bowling ball. Leftover oil and grime in the machine could cause spotting on the glassware later.

What do you do if you don’t have a dishwasher? It is highly recommended that you do not use the laundry washing machine. If you think about it, I’m sure you will see why this would not be a good idea.

I don’t have the cribbage winners from last Tuesday and of course there was no tournament last Thursday.

But just a few comments about the weekly cribbage tournaments. There is only one player who can win first place and many times when it looks like one person is about to win, opponents take great pride in seeing if they can defeat that person.

However, all players can be winners when people make delicious snacks to share. One player, Della Hilton, likes to try different cookie recipes. Most cookies she makes are just fantastic and the cookie jar is empty by the time the tournament ends.

A couple of weeks ago she made some sugar cookies. She said she did not think they turned out too good because the taste was so subtle. I agreed that the taste was a bit lacking but I still enjoyed eating them and others must have agreed too, because the jar was quickly emptied. We all hope Della keeps making cookies because even the batches she doesn’t think are very good still makes it worthwhile to attend the cribbage games.

Of course there are several other people who bring in special baked goods including muffins, cakes and cookies ranging from blueberry muffins to chocolate chip cookies to special chocolate/coconut cookies to whoopee pies. There have been a few rare times when no one brought in any goodies. There was no joy in even winning all the games that day. How could there be any thrill of victory when we were all experiencing the agony of no fresh baked goodies.

Remember that the Wiscasset Senior Center Cribbage Club's first-ever tournament is scheduled for Saturday morning, Dec. 20 starting at 9 a.m. You must register by Wednesday, Dec. 17. There is a list of special rules governing play so be sure to pick up a copy.

Public Supper Next Week:

(Reservations, please! Call 207-882-8230 at least two days in advance for meal reservations.)

Wednesday, Dec. 10: Baked haddock