Lotsa seasonable fun throughout the greater Edgecomb area: Once again, curmudgeonly Ebenezer Scrooge loosens up for the holiday season at the Boothbay Playhouse this Friday and Saturday, December 7 and 8 at 7 p.m. and a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the Boothbay Region YMCA front desk, 633-2855, but you'd better scramble... this production has been known to sell out! Added attraction at the Saturday matinee, the Y-Arts Kiddie Choir will also perform.

The Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library is hosting 'A Victorian Christmas' on Friday, December 14 from noon on. Ted Wallace will present a program of the rich literary heritage from that era, not all of it by Dickens! Cost is $10; call 633-3112 to register and find out more.

Saturday, December 15, the Lincoln County Animal Shelter on Atlantic Avenue in Edgecomb will hold Open House from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you wish, bring a present for one of the animals (a chewbone, a jingleball, a milkbone cookie...) or a donation of money or pet food. Santa Claus will be visiting from noon until 2 p.m. and will be available for photo-ops. The celebration will end with a Blessing of the Animals by Father Picard from St. Patrick's Church in Newcastle.

Edgecomb Kudos: My neighbor Nat Blackford has been chosen Wiscasset Middle School's Student of the Month, and is also on the WMS boy's soccer team, as is Ryan Hanley and James Brown! Well done, young men!

The MUUF has just announced its Web site: www.uumidcoast.org. If there are any computer wonks in the neighborhood who would find a challenge in converting their Sunday services to audio programs for access by UUs who can't get to the Town Hall, please let President Mary Neal know, at wjwmbn@ verizon.net.

Check out Rivers End Farm, which has taken over the Basket Barn property at the intersection of the River Road and Route 27 in Boothbay. They are offering locally made cheeses, jams, preserves, mustards, homemade desserts, even beer and wine, et al. Winter hours are Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Give 633-4044 a call and ask owner Marybeth Dubois about filling your Christmas giving or catering needs.

Ms. Dubois' business is located at what old timers in my youth (1940s) were still calling The Willow Tree, years after it had blown down in a storm. Does anyone remember that famous willow and exactly where it was located? Does anyone have any pictures of it? Although a Boothbay fixture, nevertheless, the Edgecomb Historical Society would also appreciate this bit of lost local lore.

The tenor of the Edgecomb bypass meetings last weekend seemed to this observer to be basically split in favor of 'No Build' or N8c, the route option requiring the long bridge over the river to land on Davis Island, where the MDOT local workyard is currently located. I was impressed by the number of citizens who had actually studied the DEIS and who made thoughtful, realistic comments and questions. This column's deadline misses the similar meetings at Alna on Monday and Wiscasset on Tuesday, but you might be able to make the meeting at the Westport Island Town Hall today, Thursday, December 6, at 6 p.m. The ultimate commentary deadline is December 21. Send your views and questions to www.wiscassetroute1corridor . com or mail them to Ed Hanscom, Wiscasset Corridor Study, Maine Department of Transportation, 16 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333 or to Mark Hasselmann, Federal Highways Administration, 40 Western Avenue, Room 614, Augusta, ME 04330. They were saying at Edgecomb's Saturday meeting, we might expect the Final Environmental Impact Statement by summer of 2008. Well, we can begin to expect it....

Late breaking news: The Alna bypass meeting has been cancelled due to weather (no surprise), and has been rescheduled for two weeks from today, December 17th, 6 p.m. at the Alna Fire House.

Margot Stiassni-Sieracki, Coordinator of 'Art Bags for Kids,' is aiming for 150 bags of creative art-making supplies, including sketch-books and age appropriate materials in order to provide needy children, from preschoolers through teenagers, with Christmas gifts which promote their creative and artistic development. Sponsored again by the Edgecomb Congregational Church, the project welcomes donations of cash or new art supplies and craft kits. Anyone interested in volunteering to assist with 'Art Bags for Kids' or desiring to donate materials may contact Margot at 882-7593 or Gail Boudin at 882-7972.

For donations of any amount, donors will receive an acknowledgment for tax purposes and a card appropriate to honor a friend or family member. Donations made by check are tax deductible and will be acknowledged if they are written to the Edgecomb Congregational Church with a memo 'Art Bags for Kids.' Checks may be mailed to the church at P.O. Box 113, Edgecomb, ME 04556.

The Edgecomb Congregational Church Thrift Shop invites you to lunch every Tuesday at noon, on them! Still, if you care to give a donation, or bring, say, a pot of soup for a couple dozen people, those will be welcome, too. Check out the new Christmas Gift Table with items ranging from 50 cents to $10, mostly under $5. They could use some more books. This month's donations will go toward heat, food and shelter in the area. Winter is beautiful, but also harsh and difficult. Sez I, with the snow coming down on Monday morning, with no driveway snowplowing arrangement in place.

Weather rule of thumb: If the school is closed, the Town Hall is closed. And if the Town Hall is closed on a Monday, the Selectmen won't meet. While on the topic of closings, remember, Lee and Claudia will close the town offices from December 24, 2007 to January 3, 2008. Please get your town business done before then! Likewise, except for signing the biweekly warrant, the Selectmen will hibernate also. Emergencies always excepted.

Let us salute the passing of Joan Pinkham Creamer of Damariscotta who was one of my schoolmates at the Salt Marsh School, as was her husband Perley Creamer, and her sister Joyce Pinkham Tuttle. We used to play all through the woods after school, and I'd walk with them

halfway home, to the top of Fairbrother's Hill. I send my personal sympathies and my hellos to her family. Donations may be sent to the First Baptist Church of Damariscotta, P.O.B. 248, Damariscotta ME 04543 in Joan's memory.

Bitter Irony Department: Not only is Dec. 7 the anniversary of D-Day, it is also St. Nicholas' Day. Peace on earth, good will to absolutely everyone from 234 River Road, 633-2978, jocam@midcoast. com.

This column appears in the Boothbay Register, The Lincoln County News, the Wiscasset News-paper, and at www.Edgecomb.org.