18 December 2013 The Adult Winter Reading Program begins in two weeks! This year our theme is, "The Plays the thing." Our grand prize is tickets for the plays, "Boeing, Boeing" and "Annie Get Your Gun". There will be two tickets for each performance. When you read, listen or view ten items from the Library you get a Vicksburg District Library lunch bag and you are entered for the drawing for the grand prize. For every five items that you read, listen or view after the intial ten, you get another entry for the grand prize. The program starts on January 2, 2014 and runs through March 31. The drawing for the grand prize and other prizes will take place on April 1, 2014. The Brown Bag Classic Book Club will be reading the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. One of the most famous and read early American authors, he wrote, The House of the Seven Gables, The Scarlette Letter, The Marble Faun and Twice Told Tales among other short stories. The next meeting of the Brown Bag Book Club will be on Monday, January 20, at noon in the basement meeting room. Hot coffee will be available. A reminder that a donation to the Library can be used as a charitable donation on your income tax. The funding for the Library is mostly local. From our millage, to penal fines, to donations. All of these main funding sources are local. The State of Michigan aid to libraries is less than forty cents per person in our service area. The population of our service area is just over 12,000 so we get less than $4,800 from the State. Please remember the Library as you make your charitable donations at the end of the year. Monday is the last day that we will be open before Christmas. Miss Kristy will be holding a special holiday storytime at 3:00 p.m. on that day. Our holiday hours are as follows: Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day: December 24 & 25. Closed New Year's Eve and New Year's Day: December 31 and January 1. We will be open our regular hours from December 26 through December 30. We reopen after New Year's on our regular schedule on January 2, 2014. I WISH ALL OUR PATRONS AND FRIENDS A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS. Be careful on the roads and enjoy the company of your family and friends John

11 December 2013 The raffle for the South County Pantry is complete and the winner is Thomas Howard. Thank you and congratulations to the Thomas Howard family. If you are looking for a good book for the holiday season, Rachel has put the adult Christmas fiction and Christmas music on the bookcase under the west window in the reference area. The Christmas non-fiction, which includes crafts, stories and cookbooks. A reminder, the Library will be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. The Library will return to regular hours on December 26. Please remember the Library when making your end of year donations. The Library gets over 90% of its operating money from local sources such as millage, penal fines and donations. A donation to the library may be tax deductable as a charitable donation, but remember, check with your tax preparer. With the winter weather remember to drive slower, keep a survival kit in your vehicle, (blanket, flashlight, energy bars, water), and leave a little earlier. Start stopping sooner, intersections can be slicker than the road. You never know when you may be delayed because the road is closed due to an accident. When driving at night be watchful of pedestrians who are dressed in dark colors and animals crossing the road. We want our patrons to make it to the Library and home safely. The Brown Bag Book Club meets on Monday, December 16, at noon. We are reading the cases of Sherlock Holmes this month. Next month we will be reading works by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Until next week, be safe and read. John

4 December 2013 Only three more weeks until Christmas. A gift to the Library is a gift to your community as donations are used for materials for the library. An easy gift is to donate the cost of a one year subscription to one of the magazines that we have at the library. From Popular Mechanics and Country Woman to Cook's Cooking magazine and Woman's Day. Maybe you have a hobby weaving or woodworking, you can designate the money you donate to purchase a book on how to perform that craft. Have a Merry Christmas and donate to the Library. There is not a lot of programming going on during December. You can come in and make a candy cottage on December 12 from 5-7. This is an open program, just come in between the listed hours and make a festive candy cottage for your home. We ask that you register by Monday, December 9, so we can make sure there will be enough materials on hand. There will also be a Holiday Christmas Storytime on Monday, December 23, from 3-4. Besides a story, there will be some holiday games and other activities. Please pre-register by December 20 so we can have enough materials on hand for everyone. The Adult Winter Reading Program is going to start on January 2 and run through March 30. Drawing for the main prize will be on Monday, March 31. The theme for this year is, The Play's the Thing. The grand prize is two tickets to see, Boeing, Boeing and two tickets to see Annie Get Your Gun, in May. To participate, beginning on January 2, you register at the library. Read, listen or view at least 10 items (Books, Audiobooks, DVDs) between January 2 and March 30. Turn in you circulation receipts so that we can keep track of items read, listened too or viewed for prizes. When you have completed 10 items you will receive a prize. When you have completed 15 items you will be eligible for the Grand Prize and for every additional 5 items, you will qualify for additional entries for the Grand Prize. The drawing for the prizes will be Monday, March 31, 2014. Besides the Grand Prize there is a prize for most read, listened to and/or viewed items and a second place drawing. The Brown Bag Classic Book Club will meet on December 16, at noon in the downstairs meeting room. We are reading the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle is most famous for his stories and novels about Sherlock Holmes but he also wrote the Lost World featuring Professor Challenger and is an early work of science fiction. We will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Stop in and say hello to Andrea Smalley, our new reference/teen librarian. She started this past Monday. Until next week, read and gain wisdom John