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Merry Christmas on the North Fork

| January 3, 2018 7:44 AM

Boy! It has a terrific Merry Christmas and, as I wrote this the day after Christmas, I am looking forward to an equally terrific New Years. I hope you have all had the same with an equally bright outlook for the new year.

I had Christmas Eve at home in Columbia Falls with six of us from the North Fork and one townie to provide us with some diversity. We ate rib-eye steaks and all the trimmings artfully prepared by son Dave and Mark Heaphy and topped it off with lemon pie.

Christmas morning was heralded in with blue skies and sunshine. The North Fork Road was freshly plowed by our favorite grader operator, Randy Hoock. He also cleared the Community Hall parking lot. This made for a beautiful drive north to Sondresson Hall for Christmas Dinner.

Nearly 50 folks arrived to find that Caldwells and Heaphy had the hall warm. The tables were set up and brightly decorated and the tree, donated by Chris and Irv Heitz was nicely decorated. I was only mildly surprised to hear that the tree was decorated by Ray Brown. As usual, it was a terrific cooperative effort by the North Fork community.

Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy were all done by preplanned cooks, but everyone else brought a wonderful assortment of side dishes and desserts. Traditional items like Trish Walsh’s deviled eggs and Becky Braunig’s stuffed peppers were served. For the first time, Irene Brooks brought an oyster stuffing that was to die for.

Fewer folks than usual were there – normally there are 60 or more. I suppose it was due to the cold weather, which means wood stoves need to be fed more often than usual.

Ten days before Christmas, it looked like snow would be sparse, but when it came, there was plenty for a super-white Christmas. When the snow stopped and the weather cleared, Randy graded the road, smoothing out our winter paving and life is good. A small side effect, of course, are the frigid temperatures that often accompany blue skies in the winter. The coldest I heard of was -34F at Polebridge, but everyone was close to -20 and the cold snap will probably last a few days. Still, it’s way better than last summer’s smoky skies.

Of course, the holidays are not over. We have had a merry Christmas and are now looking forward to a happy New Year! The Kellys and Leighs are sponsoring the New Year’s Eve party at Sondreson Hall and, as usual, there will be more food than the crowd can eat and ton of good will to share with everyone.

On New Year’s Day, the invitation-only beach party will be held at historic Kintla Ranch, even if the weather is chilly. No one swims anyway.

We wish everyone a great New Year and health and prosperity all year round. We also hope that Congress will get beyond a second-grade level and actually start to do their job after a 10-year vacation.

Larry Wilson’s North Fork Views appears weekly in the Hungry Horse News.