Merry Christmas
By Co-Owner: Bonnie Meier

Merry Christmas. It looks like the weather will be pretty good in Orange City for Christmas. We have had a cold spell earlier this month. It looks like there is severe weather in many parts of the country.

We have been open until 8:00 p.m. the last two weeks plus on December 23, as have most of the stores in Orange City. Also, the old Bomgaars store has had a tour of Christmas trees and we have a tree in there with Dutch ornaments and a hobbyhorse that Lee refinished underneath.

Christmas is always a fun time to be in the store. We have two trees in the window and one in the center of the store so it does look Christmassy.

Pre-Inventory Sales
By Co-Owner: Bonnie Meier

After taking inventory several times we are finally figuring out that it would be less work if we could sell some of our inventory just before we have to count it. Therefore, we are going to have a terrific sale after Christmas. Each group of items will only be on sale for one day, so if you are interested in something special, please pay attention to the days.

December 26, the Thursday after Christmas all bead and findings will be 50% off.

December 27, all items dealing with sewing will be 50% off. That includes thread and DMC floss.

On the Saturday after Christmas, December 28, all items relating to quilting will be 50% off and that includes the batting we have for quilts.

On the next Monday, all knitting items will be 50% off.

On the last day of the month we will have 50% off American Girl Crafts, puzzles and games.

We will probably be open for a little while in the afternoon on the 1st of January, but the sales will be over and we will be busy counting.

New items

By Co-Owner: Bonnie Meier

Late last week we received some great CDs on several of the different provinces in Holland. We have one of Friesland, Zuid-Holland, Groningen, Zeeland, Noord Holland I and Noord-Holland II plus one entitled Holland at its Loveliest and includes information on Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Scheveningen, Delft, Volendam, Marken, Keufenhof, Deltaworks and Traditions. This is a new product for us so we are eager ourselves to view them.

We also received a new stock of the book Netherlanders in America by Jacob Van Hinte. This is a very long book (about 1000 pages), but if you ever wanted to know about the Dutch coming to America this is probably the most complete work available. I’m reading it myself and I’m not quite half way through. I just finished the section where some of the Dutch broke away from the RCA and formed the Christian Reformed Church. This mainly happened in 1857, but another group broke away about 20 years later. Many of them really didn’t get along all that well, but the Dutch were involved in many of the accomplishments in the United States. It really gets into the history of Michigan and Iowa, but also of Illinois and Wisconsin. He uses a lot of names so if your ancestors came some time ago, he probably mentions them.

Featured Personnel: Mary Harrell

By Co-Owner Bonnie Meier

Our latest new consignee is Mary Harrell from Hawarden. Mary has made three very unique items that we will feature in our store. The first is a baby bath apron. It is made of terry cloth and you put it on like an apron. However, it has a fold at the bottom so that you can put it over a baby’s head after his/her bath is finished and then you can dry off the baby without getting wet yourself. We have them in several different colors. They also have a big pocket in front that would come in handy.

The second item that Mary brought in is Walker Bags. They are lovely bags that you attach to your walker. They have a pocket on the outside, plus two on the inside so that you can keep money, etc. in a safe place.

The third item that Mary brought is a fleece baby blanket that is braided along the outside edges. They are quite large and would make wonderful baby presents.

Perusing through our guest book

By Co-Owner Bonnie Meier

I don’t think we were as conscientious about having people sign the guest book this past month. Since our last newsletter we have had people in the store from Illinois, Montana, California, South Dakota and all parts of Iowa.

No one from outside the United States signed this past month. We have had some very cold weather for December and they probably could find warmer places to visit than Iowa.