holiday gift guide

THE NEWS SUNTHE HERALD REPUBLICAN StarThe kpcnews.com

Holiday Gift Guide2013

Miller PoultryA tradition of giving in northeast Indiana

Holiday TraditionsStories shared

Greg ShoupWhite Christmases are always special

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2 Holiday Gift Guide II kpcnews.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc. December 6, 2013

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BY TOBY BAKERFew traditions for the family and I carry

as much weight as they do around the Christmas season. Our boys begin asking when we can break out the Christmas movies and we begin prepping to host Thanksgiving dinner for both sides of our families as early as October.

That part all started with china. I was sifting through coffee mugs in a local Goodwill store one day when it hit me. Why spend money on styrofoam plates and cups when we could easily pickup beautiful china at 50 cents a pop? My wife looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears, but we soon assembled three- and four-course place-settings for 35 people at a fraction of the cost of annual

disposable plates and flatware.The iconic “Trains, Planes, and

Automobiles” starring Steve Martin and the much-beloved John Candy always kicks off our season, followed by “Christmas Vacation” while we set up the tree with a glass of wine and a few cocktail shrimp while the boys munch on barbecued meatballs and three-day cooled Coke in glass bottles.

We will spend half the day prepping for our formal Christmas dinner, which takes place the week of Christmas. On this special night with my family, we gather around a table topped with carefully aged and prepared New York strips with ‘shrooms and bell peppers sauteed in bacon grease and onions sauteed in butter

and brown sugar, this served in Ruth’s Chris style: on a sizzling iron skillet with a side of baked potato, shredded cheese, sour cream and chives. We chase all that down with none other than our Christmas favorite, ice-cold Coca-Cola classic. After Christmas dinner we gather around the tree as I read through the birth of Jesus Christ from Luke 2, followed by “‘Twas the Night before Christmas.” As it was when I was a child, we open one gift on Christmas Eve, blow out the candles on a cake made to celebrate the birth of Christ, and the boys are sent to bed upstairs after a few fluffy cuts of strawberry or chocolate

goodness.My wife and I will graze on the

Christmas staple — homemade Chex Mix — as we wrap any final gifts. The cookies and milk never seem to make it through the night, but come morning, the boys prefer to dine on Cinnabon cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa before we unwrap the gifts, one at a time so that each may enjoy the moment.

These traditions mean a great deal to our family as we desire to see them carried out through the generations, celebrating with care the reason for the season.

Toby Baker is a KPC Media Group marketing consultant.

Christmas tradition carries on for generations

Happy holidays!This is the second of two holiday special sections

produced by KPC Media Group this year.The guides are designed to get you in the holiday

spirit and provide a few ideas about shopping with some of the area’s best local merchants.

In this guide, we have chosen to share with you a few stories from our staff here at KPC Media Group and a special story about Miller Poultry, Orland, which touches the lives of so many during the holiday season.

We hope you find these stories special and help

you think about your traditions.The section also provides advertisers a high-

visibility place to promote their businesses during this holiday season. We appreciate the partnership we share with them. We encourage readers to support these local merchants — your neighbors — during the holidays and all year long!

This special section is also available online at kpcnews.com.

Happy holidays from everybody at KPC Media Group!

The Baker family poses for an autumn photo. The family includes, from left, Michael, Christopher, Toby, Joyce and Nichlas Baker.

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BY TERRI MYERSWe have a Christmas shopping tradition.My husband and I take our 6- and

8-year-old girls to the Mid-America Windmill Museum’s Winter Wonderland in Kendallville to see the Christmas lights and visit Santa Claus. After a stop at Burger King, we go to Dollar Tree so the girls can do their Christmas shopping. (Not only can it be overwhelming for young children to go to a place like Walmart, you have to keep telling them no because some things are too expensive. To avoid that issue, we go to a store where everything is in their price range.)

They each take turns with my husband and I shopping for us and each other.

They cover the treasures they have chosen with their coats so they remain a secret until Christmas morning. They also buy gifts for our dog and their aunt Misty. The girls wrap their gifts and place them under the Christmas trees in their bedrooms.

This tradition has resulted in many unique gifts — neon zip ties, bath poufs, toilet bowl cleaner, Scotch tape, floor

cleaner, candy tins, you name it. It’s a tradition we started when our oldest daughter was 3, and it’s one we look forward to continuing as they get older.

Terri Myers is a KPC Media Group marketing consultant.

Myers girls have a way with shopping

Terri Myers’ family poses for a photo at the windmill museum’s annual Christmas display in Kendallville. The family includes, from left, Tim, Ashlynn and Aowyn Myers.

TERRY MYERS

TERRY HOUSHOLDER

Holiday dinnerLike many families, food and dinners are big for the Terry and Grace Housholder family. Terry is president and publisher of KPC Media Group and Grace is editorial page editor for the KPC daily newspapers and editor of Family Magazine. “For many years now, a tradition that I really enjoy is our Christmas morning brunch, prepared mainly by Terry. I make a fruit salad and serve Christmas breads and pastries. Terry makes custom omelettes for each person. It is a lot of work for him because he creates exactly the omelette that each person wants. They are delicious and we look forward to them year after year!”, says Grace Housholder. In this photo, at Christmas dinner, from left, Liz, Paul and Grace Housholder are joined by Grace’s parents, George and Dorothy Witwer. George Witwer is publisher emeritus of KPC Media Group.

BY MIKE MARTURELLOThere are certain gifts that, for what

ever reason, always strike a memory.You might not remember what you

received for Christmas last year or two years ago, save for that really bad tie or that item where your sister-in-law had you saying, under your breath, “you bought me that why?”

If you don’t have that special gift, that’s too bad, but most of us do. It wasn’t necessarily the shiniest model car or a particular doll. Who knows why, but there’s that one gift you will always cherish.

For me, it’s a sled I was given by my parents when I was 6 or 7 years old. It wasn’t any old sled, it was a Flexible Flyer, the Cadillac of sleds back in the day.

Oh, sure, we all had sleds to use, the old metal runner types. I think we had sleds that came from garage sales or other such sources, but on the sledding hill at MacRae Park, THE SLED was a Flexible Flyer (the ones that are sold under that name today are not the same thing, with decals for print, not sprayed on type, with boards made of ash and not some farm raised pine).

I don’t remember impressing on my parents that I wanted a Flexible Flyer, but I did get one for Christmas, as did my older sister, Linda.

It was that particular Christmas that stands out in my mind. I don’t recall if there was snow on the ground, but that doesn’t matter much. What I do remember was on this particular Christmas Eve, a knock on the front door; no one we knew came to the front, they always came to the side. Dad opened the door and in walked none other than Santa Claus, who was quite jolly that night.

We went through this big routine, and my younger brother and sister — Mark and Mary — bawled their eyes out. My older sister went along with the line that Santa was laying down. I took it hook, line and sinker. Linda knew it was Uncle Johnny; to me, he was the real deal.

After everything took place, Santa made his way out the door (he didn’t go downstairs to where the old coal chute

was, where there was access to the old chimney that now vented natural gas and not coal smoke). Grandpa took me out the back door to see if we could see Santa’s sleigh on the roof. Lo and behold, he must have parked on the other side of the roof. Truth be known, Uncle Johnny sped away in his big-winged Cadillac.

Dad captured it all on his 8-millimeter movie camera (I think there’s a digital version somewhere around the house). And, looking back, Santa really did look like Uncle Johnny, but I could not understand why his cheeks and nose were so red.

And at some point, I was presented with a brand new, Flexible Flyer. Pretty cool.

I promptly put my name on the underside of the sled with Magic Marker that, to this day is still legible, though my handwriting was about as bad then as it is now. My address is still there, too, as is the original cotton rope tied on to drag the sled up the big hill at MacRae.

The sled got a lot of use. And one of my siblings used it after I left home for college and beyond. But the sled always remained at Mom’s house and then in

storage after she moved out of our family home and she started the end of her years elsewhere.

At some point, somewhere around the turn of this century, I picked up the sled and brought it home to Indiana. It sits in the garage most of the year, until the holidays roll around and it makes it out to the front porch as part of the Christmas display.

It wasn’t the hottest toy of the season when I received it. It didn’t require batteries. There was no assembly. It was a solid gift, given at a time when I was young, naive, and developing a sense for the love that is Santa.

It is much more than a sled. It was Grandpa taking me out back to see Santa fly away (and I just knew he had arrived by sleigh, not a GM product). It was Uncle Johnny being … Uncle Johnny. And it was my parents doing what ever they could to make us children happy at Christmas.

Some 50 years later, I still have that Flexible Flyer. If you ever want to take it for a ride, let me know.

Mike Marturello is editor at KPC Media Group’s The Herald Republican.

The old Flexible Flyer still has a place in my heart

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This old Flexible Flyer has been around for more than 50 years, and becomes part of a holiday display every year at the home of The Herald Republican editor Mike Marturello.

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ORLAND — Dinner tables across the region will feature juicy, farm-fresh chicken as part of the holiday meal.

Miller Poultry, a family-owned business with a major processing plant just outside Orland, will give more than 160,000 pounds of antibiotic-free chicken this holiday season to needy families. When you figure 3 to 3 1/2 pounds per dressed bird, that’s a lot of dinners.

“We at Miller Poultry are very thankful for the many ways we have been blessed. Those blessings include wonderful customers, a great family of employees, and business growth to the point of now being the largest employer in Steuben County with nearly 600 people,” said Galen Miller, president and owner of Miller Poultry. “These chicken donations grow out of a religious faith that promotes a culture of sharing blessings and talents. Our family and team look forward to

another year of sharing poultry with those less fortunate both locally and in a several-state area.”

Miller Poultry processes 90-95,000 chickens per day at the Orland plant, which was purchased in 1992 from the Booth family. The company works with 120 area farmers who raise the chickens, and salespeople in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and beyond.

While chicken is an American staple, the market dips a little during

Miller Poultry has a tradition of giving

AMY OBERLIN

the holiday season, when people tend to buy more turkey, ham and specialty meat cuts, said Kevin Diehl, director of plant operations. That’s when the Miller family can give back by donating chicken as well as some of its other products like sausage, drumsticks and thighs.

The holiday giving started about eight years ago with requests from local agencies, said Sally Durbin, administra-tive coordinator at Miller Poultry. The program has grown annually and even as November was coming to a close, more food pantries and social service groups

were being added to the list of this year’s recipients.

Throughout the holiday season, Miller coordinates distribution of loads of chicken to pantries, churches and other social service organizations. On Nov. 20, 800 pounds of chicken and 240 pounds of sausage were dropped off at the Fremont Community Church. Tuesday, the LaGrange County Food and Clothing Basket received 6,000 pounds of chicken and 900 pounds of sausage.

Donations are planned in Rome City, Ligonier, Elkhart, South Bend, Angola —

the list goes on. The chicken distributed over a month or so will feed more than 64,000 families, said Durbin.

Miller Poultry will give as much meat as an agency can take, Durbin said. Many have only limited freezer storage and plan giveaway days in coordination with the donations.

“We’re teaming up with our customers and presenting this with our customers,” said Diehl.

In Steuben County and in Goshen, where the Millers operate a hatchery, the Amish Country Poultry logo is well

known. Represenatives from the plants make the presentations, and in more remote locations, the salespeople and businesses that sell Amish Country Poultry make an appearance at the donation site.

“It’s deeply ingrained in the Miller family and our whole Miller Poultry team how to give back to the community,” said Diehl.

Along with the holiday chicken, Miller Poultry has supported 4-H, the Orland Community Volunteer Fire Department and local schools.

“We at Miller Poultry are very thankful for the many ways

we have been blessed. Those blessings include wonderful customers, a great family of

employees, and business growth to the point of now being the largest employer in Steuben

County with nearly 600 people,”

Galen Miller

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“It’s deeply ingrained in the Miller family and our whole Miller Poultry team how to

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Miller Poultry employees, from left, Kevin Diehl, director of plant operations; Jan Breckenridge, quality assurance; Karen Brenneman, controller; Jolene Knisely, human resources; Sally Durbin, administrative coordinator; Alfred Baas, second

processing manager; and Roger Stearns, plant manager, hold some of the products that will be given away to the needy over the holiday season.

Clothes and Food Basket of LaGrange chairman Richard Yoder, center, and volunteer Floyd Miller, right, unload boxes of sausages donated to the LaGrange charity by Miller

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BY JENNIFER DECKERIn the three years I have been

in Angola after moving here from Michigan, the only holiday tradition I have always maintained is putting up my little Christmas tree and my assorted ornaments, all of deep sentiment.

The tree always appears decorated Thanksgiving weekend when I put up Christmas all over the house.

My tree has survived Christmases at the seven places I’ve lived and tormenting from my three kitty cats over the years.

Some of my ornaments have tiny bite marks on them. Some are beat up from being bopped around like beach balls by little paws. Fuzzy ornaments end up all over the house, carried like baby dolls.

Many of my ornaments have deep meaning to me. There are wooden ornaments — a dove, rocking horse and angels — crafted by my father. There’s an ornament of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

given to me by a former boss, Irene; another given by Father Terrien; my pigs, understandable by those who know me best; a piece of birch bark carried from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula making me feel close to my late Grandma and Papa; even a paper Santa from my parents’ first Christmas tree 50 years ago.

My wooden train set — also made by Dad — has to always stretch around the Christmas tree base.

Before my tree is done being decorated, I usually have a lump in my throat and the tears flow from looking at some of the pieces of my life, many thanks to those in heaven, including two four-legged fur people.

Usually, if I’m lucky, my Christmas tree might, just might, stay up intact until Christmas. That is, unless my calico, Poppy, has other ideas.

Jennifer Decker is a reporter with KPC Media Group’s The Herald Republican in Angola.

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Poppy the wonder calico has visions of getting into the Christmas tree belonging to her mother, Jennifer Decker.

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BY HOLLY BIRELEYWith the holidays fast approaching all

of our lives get a little more chaotic than normal. From now until the kids open their presents Christmas morning is going to be a blur. It seems like we are always pulled in so many different directions with the family gatherings, baking, friends, shopping, church and school.

Everyone has traditions, a lot of them the same. Cookies set out for Santa, Midnight mass, bedtime stories, maybe a special gift on Christmas Eve.

Our children are now 22, 20, 18, 17 and 7. When the older ones were about 6 we started a new tradition in our family. It seemed so simple, but trust me, many years it was like pulling teeth to get everyone on board. Every Christmas Eve before we leave for church I hang person-alized envelopes on the tree.

One for every child and of course one for myself and my husband. The rule is each one of us has to write a letter to each of the others. The letters could be as little as a few sentences or as long as they would want to make them. The letters could only be positive. It had to be

something they liked about that person, something the other did well, or a time that they shined. They could not let anyone read the letters.

That night they would put each letter in the designated envelope. Now, these are (were) kids and as every parent knows sometimes they could put a negative spin on anything. I would make it clear they could not use the word “But” or “or.” After they would go to bed I would tiptoe to the tree and carefully pull out the letters just to make sure there was nothing bad in them. You know the years of the battles of the boys vs. boys or the girls vs. the boys. Someone always mad at someone, saying they “hate” the other. I would get a little nervous about what they wrote, but not once did I have to go back to them and have them re-write. I was always amazed at the kind things they would say about the other.

One year one of the boys told the other what a great ball player he was. It seems like such a small acknowledgement but to a little boy that thought his big brother never noticed was a huge deal. They

would write about how proud they were of the other. As they got older the letters got a little longer.

On Christmas morning when presents were being handed out one of them would hand out the envelopes. They would be reminded once again of the rule that no one else could read the letters. I think that made them feel better about what they wrote themselves.

They would not read them until they were alone in their rooms. I would walk by bedroom after bedroom and see them sprawled out with the letters all unfolded.

Recently we had our oldest son go off on his own, and daughter headed to college. I was helping pack up rooms and opened a drawer and found all the years’ worth of our Christmas letters. They were still tucked in the envelope for each year but you could tell that they had been taken out and read many times. Both kids saved them. Out of curiosity I looked in the other kids’ rooms. I had to smile when everyone of them had the letters tucked safely away.

Holly Bireley is a KPC Media Group marketing consultant.

Holiday letters make lasting memories for siblings

Holly Bireley’s Christmas tree gets covered with letters her children write to one another as a special gift each Christmas. All of the siblings have saved the letters over the years as special keepsakes.

HOLLY BIRELEY

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — It all started innocently enough.

A typographical error in a newspaper ad ended up with all sorts of calls to the North American Aerospace Defense Command from children wanting to talk with Santa.

That was in 1955. Military staff from NORAD, not wanting to spoil Christmas, went along and spoke with children as surrogate Santas. Then, starting in 1958, using their vast capabilities to monitor air space, NORAD started tracking Santa’s progress all over the world.

“It all started in 1955 when a local media advertisement directed children to call Santa direct — only the number was misprinted. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone rang through to the crew commander on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center.

Thus began the tradition which NORAD carried on since it was created in 1958,” said information from NORAD.

Once again, in 2013, NORAD is prepared to track Santa’s yuletide journey. And these days, NORAD operates its Santa tracking on a variety of platforms and media.

The newly redesigned NORAD Tracks Santa website, noradsanta.org, went live Sunday, featuring a holiday countdown, daily games and activities, videos, music and more. Beyond a new look, features such as a 3D globe and new interac-tive games take advantage of today’s modern web. The site is available in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Chinese.

And, for those of you wanting to track Santa on your phone or tablet, the official NORAD Tracks Santa app is also available in the Windows, Apple and Android stores, so parents and children can count down the days until Santa’s launch. Tracking opportunities are also offered on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+. Santa followers just need to type “@noradsanta” into each social media property to get started.

Starting at 12:01 a.m. MST on Dec. 24, website visitors can watch Santa make preparations for his flight through the Bing maps and Cesium technology to track Santa with NORAD in 2D and 3D. Then, at 4 a.m. MST (6 a.m. EST), trackers worldwide can speak with a live phone operator to inquire as to Santa’s whereabouts by dialing the toll-free number 877-Hi-NORAD (877-446-6723) or by sending an email to [email protected]. OnStar subscribers can press the OnStar button in their vehicles to find Santa’s location any time on Dec. 24. NORAD’s “Santa Cams” will stream videos on the website as Santa makes his way over various locations.

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BY GREG SHOUPIn my experience most people who hate

snow are not necessarily opposed to it on Christmas. Of course, on the 26th they want it back to sunny and 78 degrees.

I once worked with a news anchor who constantly complained about the weather on air. That is until one day. It was Christmas Eve and I was happy to report the forecast was favorable for a white Christmas. Of course, he immediately started to complain. Well, it may have been Christmas Eve when most people are busy and not necessarily watching the news, but the switch board lit up like a Christmas tree with angry viewers. How dare he complain about a white Christmas! After that, his complaints were aimed toward the sports news.

The last time we had a good snow cover in northeast Indiana on Christmas morning was 2004. We had 7 inches. It was pictur-esque, but frigid at 15 degrees below zero! You know what snow sounds like when it’s that cold outside; very crunchy. Santa had to tread lightly bringing the presents hidden in the back of his SUV into the house in the wee hours of Christmas morning so as not to wake 8-year-old Colby and 6-year-old Montana. As a matter of fact, Santa was so worried about waking them up he lost his footing and fell into a snow drift face down with his arms full of presents. The crunchy snow didn’t wake them up, but Santa’s scream did!

All meteorologists get asked about the forecast for specific dates that are important to people; a wedding day, a wheat harvest.

The first December I worked in Fort Wayne, I got a call in the weather center close to Christmas from an elderly woman named Shirley. She was very sweet and asked me about my family and general getting-to-know-you questions. After a nice chat she wanted to know if I thought we were going to have a white Christmas. I gave her my forecast, she thanked me and we hung up. She called me every year around that time for seven years and each time ending with the question about a white Christmas. On the eighth year I anxiously waited and waited for her call. Then on Christmas Eve, just as I was about to go on the air, the phone rang and it was a man who identified himself as Shirley’s son, James, whom she had talked about. He proceeded to tell me that his mom had passed away in the fall at age 90, his voice full of emotion, but he thought that one last time he would make the call that she looked forward to all year long. That took me off guard. When we both composed ourselves he said, “So, are we going to have a white Christmas?” I gave him my forecast, told him

how much I enjoyed her annual Christmas call and we hung up.

It snowed the next morning. Prettiest snowfall I’ve ever seen.

Greg Shoup is a meterologist with WANE-TV, NewsChannel 15, news gathering partner with KPC Media Group. Perhaps more importantly, Shoup is married to Claudia Johnson, marketing manager with KPC.

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Greg Shoup, WANE-TV meteorologist, prepares a forecast. Many in northeast Indiana rely on Shoup for his predic-tions of white Christmases.

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