A CNB winter wonderland

It's a real winter wonderland in the windows of Citizens National Bank. Here's a view of the south window. The bank won second place in the Bluffton chamber downtown holiday window decorating contest.

Bluffton's first December holiday weekend offers lots of activities for persons interested in getting into the holiday mood. Here's the first installment of December weekend features from The Icon on what's going on in Bluffton.

Thanks to Paula Pyzik Scott for contributing this Christmas recipe.

English Toffee Pudding

Fred Steiner and Santa say "Send your Christmas wish list to The Icon" (Denny Edinger photo)

Dear Santa...The Bluffton Icon again has the inside track to your Christmas wishes. A special mailbox at the Bluffton Post Office accepts letters to Santa. The Icon will print all letters that are legible.

And, thanks to the digital age, The Icon will also accept e-mailed letters to Santa. Send them to [email protected]

Here's the first letter:

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Here's a classic Will Triplett photo. The subject is young Walter James Renner of Bluffton. The photo was taken on March 7, 1897, thanks to information written on the back of the photo.

While a photo of this pose today might be simple, consider Will Triplett's task in 1897.

His subject - a very young child - needed to stand is a "frozen" pose for several seconds. If he moved his image would be blurred. The pups in the photo were already under control.

It wasn't a typical Bluffton November - weatherwise, according to Guy Verhoff, Pandora weather observer.

During November 2011 rainfall was recorded at 5.03 inches; normal average rainfall for November is 2.83 inches.

The November 2011 average temperature was 46.6 degrees. The normal average for November is 40.4 degrees.

November witnessed the first snowfall of the season when it recorded 1.2 inches on Nov. 29.

The high temperature reading of the month was 70 on Nov. 8. The low for the month was 24 on Nov. 18.

Book cover

Bluffton Public Library will host a local author signing event on Thursday, Dec. 1, at 6:30 p.m. Fred Steiner will be on hand to discuss his newly published book, "A Good Place to Miss - Bluffton Stories 1900-1975."

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