This week's featured stories

Our annual Christmas Edition is our largest of the year and is our giant Christmas card to you! Be sure to pick up the print or e-edition to read these heart-warming holiday articles. 

  • Displaying their ugly Christmas sweaters for Education First’s Christmas party were from left: Noham Borie (France), Jitse Valkenburg (Netherlands), Emma Heckmann (Germany) and Nils Lendi (Switzerland).
    Displaying their ugly Christmas sweaters for Education First’s Christmas party were from left: Noham Borie (France), Jitse Valkenburg (Netherlands), Emma Heckmann (Germany) and Nils Lendi (Switzerland).
  • Sandy’s Cookies, Macs & More offered a variety of treats at the Holiday Shopping Spectacular at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds on Nov. 4. Overseeing the operation is Sandy Sebesta, seated center, along with granddaughters, from left, Autumn Paquin, Nadine Lovejoy and Brooklyn Paquin.
    Sandy’s Cookies, Macs & More offered a variety of treats at the Holiday Shopping Spectacular at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds on Nov. 4. Overseeing the operation is Sandy Sebesta, seated center, along with granddaughters, from left, Autumn Paquin, Nadine Lovejoy and Brooklyn Paquin.
  • Hordville native Agnes Andreasen, 98, shows the binder of annual rhyming Christmas letters she has been sending out to family and friends since 1993.
    Hordville native Agnes Andreasen, 98, shows the binder of annual rhyming Christmas letters she has been sending out to family and friends since 1993.
  • East Park Villa resident Ramer Fassnacht and his daughter, Teresa Smith, display some of the jugs of pennies they have collected in anticipation of Fassnacht’s 100th birthday next March. The father and daughter are on a mission to collect one penny for every day of Fassnacht’s life.
    East Park Villa resident Ramer Fassnacht and his daughter, Teresa Smith, display some of the jugs of pennies they have collected in anticipation of Fassnacht’s 100th birthday next March. The father and daughter are on a mission to collect one penny for every day of Fassnacht’s life.
  • The seven members of Hampton’s kindergarten class demonstrate Santa’s trademark “HO, HO, HO” laugh as they stand in front of their Christmas bulletin board. From left are Grace Winfield, Josie Herman, Anniston Arnett, Carter Klute, Bodee Conard, Eelix De La Cruz and Axel Fisher.
    The seven members of Hampton’s kindergarten class demonstrate Santa’s trademark “HO, HO, HO” laugh as they stand in front of their Christmas bulletin board. From left are Grace Winfield, Josie Herman, Anniston Arnett, Carter Klute, Bodee Conard, Eelix De La Cruz and Axel Fisher.
  • Darrell Schmidt was one of many volunteers helping with this year’s Hamilton County Food Pantry holiday distribution.
    Darrell Schmidt was one of many volunteers helping with this year’s Hamilton County Food Pantry holiday distribution.

    Celebrating Christmas around the world in Aurora

    The Ivy was festive Dec. 3 as students from the Education First exchange program gathered with their host families to celebrate holiday traditions together. Among the exchange students celebrating their first Christmas in America were Emma Heckmann from Germany, Nils Lendi from Switzerland, Noham Borie from France and Jitse Valkenburg from the Netherlands. While participating in new traditions with new friends, they shared what their family traditions are like back home.

     

    Baking up Christmas cheer a family affair for Sebesta

    Sweet treats are one of the many highlights of Christmas festivities and for one Aurora woman, baking has become both a business and an opportunity to spend quality time with her grandchildren during the holiday season. In an article in this week's F Section, Sandy Sebesta of Sandy’s Cookies, Macs & More talks about a family tradition of baking that is being continued in her business she shares with her granddaughters. 

     

    ‘Twas the poem before Christmas’
    There’s something about Christmas and poetry that just go together! Perhaps it’s because some of our earliest memories have to do with that poem that starts out “T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...” Clement Moore’s famous Christmas poem is known and loved by people everywhere and its rhymes and rhythms help ring in the season every year. So it’s not surprising that for nearly 30 years, one of Hamilton County’s oldest residents has been penning a new Christmas poem to send out to her family and friends to share the joy of the season. At age 98, Agnes Andreasen, a native of Hordville, sat down a few days ago to pen her 28th Christmas letter, which is always in the form of a poem. 
     
     

    Fassnacht collecting a penny for every day of his 100 years

    It’s always a fun time planning activities to celebrate a birthday, and a 99-year-old resident of East Park Villa has found a unique way plan for his pending 100th. Ramer Fassnacht will turn 100 on March 4 of 2024 and is preparing for that occasion by collecting a penny for every day of his nearly 100 years of life. The near-centenarian shares with our Elizabeth Hunter the joys and challenges of collecting more than 39,500 pennies. 

     

    Kindergarteners share intel on Santa Claus

    With Christmas just around the corner, we here at ANR decided we needed to learn a little bit more about the big guy with the white beard and the red suit who gets so much attention at this time of year. We’re talking, of course, about Santa Claus. So, last Thursday we packed up our official news reporter camera and made a trip over to Hampton Elementary School to ask the seven members of the school’s kindergarten class what they knew about Santa Claus and how he accomplishes his annual mission every Christmas Eve. Their responses make for some entertaining and enlightening reading. 

     

    Food pantry serves up holiday meal, hope for families

    The weather outside was bone-chilling cold on Dec. 9 in Aurora, but the feeling of joy and heart-felt warmth carried the day during the Hamilton County Food Pantry’s annual holiday meal distribution event. Individuals from 76 families, representing more than 215 people in all, braved the cold to collect their choice of ham or turkey along with bags filled with all the makings for a festive holiday meal. The combination of people in need and the community’s generosity were both apparent on a day which event coordinator Sally Roblee said has become an annual tradition.

    In addition to these articles, there's so much more in this week's ANR! You'll find Christmas greetings, kids' writing and artwork related to Santa Claus and his reindeer and elves as well as their creative Christmas dinner menu ideas, reminiscences from our elderly readers plus all of the latest local news. Pick up a copy today but be careful, it's heavy with Christmas spirit!