This is a great follow-up for anyone who liked my recent blog highlighting our village’s holiday decorations.
The Webster Public Library has just posted a new video in their Let’s Explore Webster series. (You can view it above.) It’s called Holiday Time in the Village, hosted by our favorite library video personalities, Laureen and Doreen. They took their stroll through the village during the daytime, so I think you’ll see several things in their video which were not in mine.
Check it out, and while you’re on their YouTube page, check out ome of the other videos they’ve posted there. You just might learn something about our town you didn’t know before!
It was a beautiful night for a walk last night, so in between football games, my husband and I extracted ourselves from the couch and wandered down into the village to check out the sights.
I love how Webster looks at holiday time. It just sparkles from end to end, making an already charming village look even more so. If you haven’t walked along Main Street after dark recently, you owe it to yourself to do so; it will help brighten what for most of us is a pretty bleak holiday season.
But there’s also another reason to make the trip: many of the local merchants are participating in a Christmas Decorating Contest. Community members are invited to drive or walk through the village to check out all the decorations, then go online to the BID website to vote for the most colorful, the most creative and the one which most embraces the spirit of the season. You can also see photos of the entries on the BID website.
Here are several photos I took on our walk.
And here’s a quick note about a Webster Public Library program which the whole family will enjoy.
It’s a “Holiday Storytime Extravaganza,” a staff-wide holiday storytime special. It premieres Monday night at 7 p.m. on YouTube. Click here to join the fun.
This is the first time the library has done anything like this, so it should be filled with a lot of surprises. Get your kids in their PJs, boot up the laptop, and tune in.
Here are a few quick stories that will brighten your day.
The first comes from one of my faithful readers, whose daughter Julia dances with the local studio Dancing With Denise, located on Gravel Rd. in Webster.
Owner Denise Baller has always supported our community in so many ways, most recently participating in the recent Webster Holiday Parade of Lights, where she and her dedicated dancers kept going through rain and snow until the very last car drove through the parade.
Last week Sunday she and her “Happy Feet Dancers” dancers took that commitment to The Maplewood senior living community and created their very own Dancing Parade around the outside of the building. Each resident was treated to their own private dance show right outside their windows.
The photo above is of the dancers in their holiday gear. Go on over to Denise’s Facebook page to see more photos and a really cute video.
I picked up this next tidbit from a Facebook post created by Jamie Nodine about her son Josh.
I wrote about Josh back in March when he was treated to a very special birthday parade past his house, kind of a consolation prize for when his Dream Factory trip to Walt Disney World got canceled.
On nice days, Josh likes to sit outside his State Rd. home and wave at the cars and trucks driving by. When he was doing that a little more than a week ago, he was surprised by a very special visitor.
Jamie wrote,
The weather was beautiful yesterday! It was a perfect day for Josh to sit in the driveway and wave to passersby. As I looked out the front window, I saw a truck slow down and stop in the driveway. Much to my surprise, Santa hopped out to greet my son! Josh was beside himself! With a “ho ho ho,” he handed Josh some candy canes and wished him a Merry Christmas.
Josh was thrilled, Jamie added, and talked about the experience all night long. A big thank you to the the kind Santa in the pickup truck for taking the time to make a special memory this special young man.
At my sister’s house in Greene, Christmas-time 2018. The temps were hitting record lows that week.
So many things are different about this holiday season. But come hell or high water, my family WILL be doing a barefoot snow walk.
My regular blog readers have heard about this unusual tradition. My paternal grandmother (“Gia Gia”) originated the challenge about 75 years ago, when she took off her shoes and socks in the dead of winter and tromped barefoot in the snow to the far side of her yard and back. It was a distance of perhaps 100 feet each way. Pretty much every year since, my family has been holding annual barefoot snow walks whenever we get together for the holidays.
It’s a foregone conclusion: before the turkey gets sliced or the gifts get opened, we gather up towels, remove socks and shoes, roll up the pants, set up a photographer or two, sprint out the back door into the snow, and — while holding one another for emotional and physical support — smile for the cameras.
(While we scream through gritted teeth, “Take it already!” “What do you mean you need one more!?” “No, I am not moving over!” “Why didn’t you turn the camera on before we got out here!?” “I AM smiling!”)
Then, after the photographers are thoroughly accommodated, we run screaming back into the house to re-acquaint ourselves with our feet.
This year, of course, we won’t be gathering for Christmas. So we’ve had to come up with a creative solution to keep the tradition going: the first-ever Zoom Barefoot Snow Walk.
My running buddy Mike Bodine actually came up with the idea, and after giving it some thought I realized it was inspired. So a set time has been arranged, texts have been sent, and the Zoom invite has been emailed. On Christmas morning, I, my kids, my siblings and a smattering of nephews — representing at least four states — will, at the appointed time, Zoom barefoot into whatever snow we happen to have.
It will be epic. And it will be recorded.
How about you? What unusual holiday traditions does your family have? How are you celebrating this unusual holiday safely and creatively?
We all could use a little laugh right about now as Christmas-time stress compounds the stress we already have thanks to COVID.
So I thought I’d share these images with you, of a scene I came across in Irondequoit last weekend. All I could think of was, “Arlo Guthrie told us all about the ‘Thanksgiving Day Massacree.’ How come we haven’t heard anything about this obvious Christmas Day Massacree?
It got worse when I got to the Rec Center, where I saw clear evidence of a hit-and-run.
After more than 30 years in the Webster Police Department, Police Chief Joe Rieger will retire in mid-January.
Rieger has led the department since 2015, when he replaced retiring police chief Gerald Pickering.
In a letter he wrote to the community, Rieger said,
It has been a great honor and privilege to serve as your Chief of Police for nearly 6 years. However, the time has come for me to retire from the Webster Police Department and pass the leadership torch to someone else.
The decision to retire has been bittersweet for me. I am looking forward to retirement, but I will miss serving the public in this role and the camaraderie that exists amongst police officers.
Throughout my time as your Police Chief, I have been blessed with overwhelming community support. I sincerely appreciate that support and I hope your support for the Webster Police Department will continue into the future. Thank you for everything you have done through the years to help the Webste Police Department serve this great community. I will miss you all.
In my “job” as Webster blogger, I’ve had occasion to cross paths with Chief Rieger many times, most recently at the Village of Webster Holiday Parade of Lights. He was always very friendly, helpful and professional, and I wish him the best of luck in whatever he chooses to do in his retirement.
Continuing my theme of it’s-such-a-stinky-year-I-want-to-get-Christmas-started-early, I convinced my husband the other day to make our annual trek to the Christmas tree farm a good week earlier than we usually do.
It was actually a more complicated process than it might sound, requiring quite a bit of unexpected research. It started when we got a mailing from the farm we usually patronize, informing us that the price for a cut-your-own tree was going up from $35 to $50.
That was a bit of a shocker. And it got us thinking that we might need to shop around.
I start asking friends for recommendations, hoping to find someplace a bit more reasonable. Long story short, those places do exist, but most of them are too far afield to make it worth the gas money trade-off. Because so many people recommended Woody Acres — which happens to be about three miles from our house — we ultimately decided to go there, even though their trees also cost $50. Our original choice seemed to be getting picked over a bit anyway.
I was blown away by the incredible selection of beautiful trees I saw there. It only took us 15 minutes, and only a few steps off a main path, to find a great tree, so perfectly shaped that it looks like it came from a movie. My eyes were a bit bigger than my Christmas tree nook, however, and we had to angle and shove it in much like the Grinch tried to shove a Christmas tree up the chimney.
A lot of you out there probably still have to find your perfect tree, and I know that this weekend will be a busy one for tree shoppers. So if you need to shop around, here are some local options. You’ll want to check their websites or Facebook pages to check pricing and see if they have pre-cut, cut-your-own, or both.
The first, a Gingerbread House Contest, is going on right now through Dec. 12. Six village businesses have created some very fanciful gingerbread houses. Community members can see each one at the participating business or online at websterbid.com and vote for their favorites. Three prizes will be awarded for Most Creative, Best Decorated and Most Traditional.
The participating businesses include:
Bernardi & Company CPAs, 40 Barrett Dr.
Beyond Cuts Salon, 33 North Ave.
Finn’s Automotive, 45 E. Main
Martino’s Pizza, 160 W. Main
Xceed Credit Union, 189 W. Main
Maplewood Nursing Home (must be viewed online)
This contest ends on Dec. 12, so get your votes in soon.
And by the way, get together with your family and come up with your own gingerbread house creation. Take a photo and email it to Elena@websterbid.com, and you could win a prize, too!
Next is the Snowman Scavenger Hunt, which runs for one week from Dec. 13 to 19.
The kids are especially going to like this one. Each participating businesses will hang a snowman poster inside the store or in the window, and each poster will have a different word on it. Players need to collect all the words to reveal a secret phrase. There will be 15 snowmen in all, and hints for where to find them will be posted on theBID website. Participants are also encouraged to take a creative picture with each snowman.
The top two puzzle solvers and the most creative photo with a snowman will each win a prize.
Finally, the week before Christmas, make sure to get downtown to see the village sparkle as shop owners decorate their windows and doors for the BID’s Window Display Contest. Community members can vote online for the Most Creative, the Most Colorful and the best Spirit of the Season.
For more information about all these upcoming holiday events, visit the BID website.
I’ve also posted several videos at the end of this blog.
The Village of Webster tried something new last night: a reimagined Holiday Parade of Lights to replace the very popular parade which winds down Main Street during the village’s White Christmas celebration every (non-COVID) year.
It most respects, it was very successful. Most would say too successful, actually.
While organizers expected only 4,100 cars to weave through the 1/2-mile long “parade,” many more unexpectedly showed up, creating very long wait times.
It was an unfortunate and aggravating situation for everyone, to be sure. But those who endured the invonvenience were rewarded with a magical and spectacular display courtesy more than 50 first responder agencies, community groups and local businesses who came out in force and endured the weather, their bodies and vehicles covered in twinkling lights.
People waiting their turn in the staging parking lot might have been grumpy, but when they saw what awaited them in the main lot, their frowns disappeared.
What I saw during my time there were kids and parents beaming, leaning out the windows waving back at the exhibitors. One girl yelled “This is AMAZING!” As they finally came to the end of the parade, the children positively exploded with delight upon seeing Santa wishing them a “Merry Christmas,” and many parents took the time to honk their horns, show a thumbs-up or yell “thank you!”
There’s been a lot of grousing on various social networks by families disappointed with the event. The criticisms are legitimate. But I’m sure the organizers and exhibitors would love to hear from folks who enjoyed themselves, despite the aggravations. These are people who spent hundreds of hours pulling together miriad details to create a much-needed holiday event, some of whom were outside in the cold and rain and snow for more than 12 hours.
So I would ask that comments here be positive and supportive. Because despite everything, The Holiday Parade of Lights gave everyone who waited in those long lines one magical night when we could forget about COVID and life seemed a little bit more normal.
I love hearing about it when otherwise ordinary people do extra-ordinary things. Especially when those “ordinary” people are young people.
Rachel
Giuliana
Eve
Such is the case with three Webster Schroeder students — seniors Rachel Kucewicz, Giuliana Zane and Eve Kowalczyk — who took it upon themselves recently to make sure the school’s annual Thanksgiving food drive was not canceled by the pandemic.
Traditionally, a small group of Webster Schroeder High School students runs a food drive in the fall to provide Thanksgiving meals to families assisted by Mt. Hope Family Center. The pandemic looked to put a damper on this year’s collection,. But these three young ladies, with help from their advisor Elizabeth Gefell, came up with an alternative.
Driven by the goal to feed as many Rochester families as possible, they asked students, staff, family, and friends for tax-deductible contributions made out directly to Mt. Hope Family Center Thanksgiving Basket Fundraiser. The trio hoped to raise $1,700, enough to feed 20 families. By their deadline on Friday, Nov. 20, they had easily surpassed that goal, bringing in $1,844.
Well done, ladies!
Mt. Hope Family Center, located on Edinburgh St. in Rochester, is dedicated to improving the lives of children and families who have experienced violence, abuse, neglect, or trauma. For more information, visit their website.
I feature the people and places and events that make Webster the wonderful community it is — and throw in some totally-not-Webster-related personal ramblings every once in a while as well.
I love it when readers send me news about the great things happening in their schools or the community, so please email me anytime at missyblog@gmail.com
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