If The Bee gave out a “frequent buyer” card, that card would have to go to Maureen Will, who has been as busy as a Bee (pun intended) purchasing Newtown Bee photos on our website. What, you don’t know about this? Visit photos.newtownbee.com where you can then click on several weeks worth of photos that have appeared in The Bee, to share or to buy. It’s not too late for the perfect New Year’s gift!

If your family gets a special gift of a new baby right around New Year’s Day, you’ll want to enter the new Newtowner in the Newtown Bee First Baby Contest for 2010. (Complete details are elsewhere in this issue.) Winning parents will receive numerous wonderful gifts and gift certificates from local businesses and organizations (including a year’s subscription to The Bee so that you can read me each week). Whichever parents send the earliest birth date to The Bee by Tuesday, January 12, will be the lucky winners.

The next time you find yourself cursing under your breath over something you see or hear about here in Newtown, always remember it could be worse: The feud between two motorcycle clubs in our sister city in Australia, has become so heated that one family has been forced to move. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the defection of Scott Orrock, a senior member of The Nomads Motorcycle Club, to The Hells Angels is the last straw for some residents of Newtown, Australia. “Defecting from a club is seen as one of the greatest breaches of etiquette and has led to some of the worst outbreaks of bikie violence, including the Milperra massacre in 1984 and the 2006 ‘ballroom blitz,’ a brawl in Queensland between the Finks and the Hells Angels during a boxing match. Three men were shot and three stabbed,” according to a story in the December 29 issue of the paper. Mr Orrock owns a tattoo parlor called Skin Deep, which was shot up in April 2007 during a feud between his former club the Nomads and the Comanchero. Then on December 3 — the day after his defection to Hell’s Angels — Mr Orrock’s clubhouse was broken into and trashed and his car, “a 1991 Toyota Soarer, was set alight about 4:30 am,” according to The Sydney Morning Herald. One neighbor of Skip Deep has had enough.

“I am acutely aware [of the feud] and more and more fearful of my own personal safety with living so close to these people, to the point that I am moving away from my residence of two years,” the unnamed resident wrote in a letter to the newspaper. “I have lived in Newtown for several years, simply because it was a place that accepted all types of individuals and let them get on with their life. These bikies have changed that … I am moving, I do not wish to jeopardise my personal safety any more.” So see? It really is Nicer In Newtown … Connecticut.

Jessica Andreotta and her mother Mary showed up for worship service at Newtown Congregational Church on December 20, even though it had been officially canceled due to weather safety concerns. The Andreotta women weren’t the only two to show up that Sunday morning, however, and Jessica proceeded to assist Reverend Matthew Crebbin in retelling “The Birth Story” to the seven other people in the congregation on that snowy morning. She also helped light the Advent Wreath. Her participation made a memorable morning!

A little time off around the holidays always gets the brain refreshed and thinking again, I believe. So why not take advantage of that brain power and visit the Discussion Salon at Mocha Coffeehouse on Glen Road? Hosted by Sandy Hook resident Ben Roberts on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 pm, it’s an opportunity to share like and unlike ideas about a broad spectrum of current topics. Anyone is welcome to stop by and put in his or her two cents worth. To get a better idea of what it’s all about, visit consciousfinancialdirections.com. Topic suggestions can be made at discussionsalon.ning.com.

If you are looking for something to do during the day, four Newtown High School students, Haley Russo, Nicolette Waterhouse, Kateleen Foy and Eric Hoffman, all have photography on display at the Danbury Mayor’s Office, located at 122 Deer Hill Avenue in Danbury. All of the photography was completed under the supervision of local photographer Laurie Klein, and the exhibit, “It Works,” will be exhibited until January 7.

It’s always a little sad when it is time to put away the holiday decorations and get rid of the Christmas tree. But if you have a wooded piece of property, once all of the ornaments are removed, a discarded Christmas tree makes a great shelter for birds. String it with popcorn and cranberries and tuck a few cut oranges into the branches to create a pine dining room for our winter songbirds. (There’s nothing I like better than watching the “birdie show” put on by little sparrows and juncos from my window perch.) Christmas trees can also be chipped and the wood chips saved and used to cushion paths next spring — but please don’t burn a Christmas tree in your fireplace. The high amount of natural turpentine in the tree makes it a fire hazard and it’s not good for your chimney.

If you need to get rid of your tree and have no property on which to dispose of it, Ferris Mulch off of Plumtrees Road in Danbury is accepting trees, Mondays through Fridays, from 7 am to 3:30 pm. For $15 a cubic yard (maybe plan to add a friend’s tree to yours) they will mulch Christmas trees. Call 203-790-1155 for more information.

Sun, clouds, rain, snow, ice, wind, warm days, and freezing temperatures. Mother Nature seems intent on reminding us of all her diversity this final week of the year. But as I always say, change is good….

Whether you will say “two thousand ten,” “twenty-ten,” or “oh-ten,” the New Year will soon be upon us. So have a happy one, and be sure next week to…. Read me again.