Painting seems to be Thomas's medium of choice with her Luverne home's walls graced with framed canvases. She also paints ceramics with Christmas as her standard theme. That theme includes numerous Santas, four complete villages and so many ornaments that her tree is decorated only with her own.

"Some are quite plain, and others are fancy," Thomas said of her Santa collection.

The Santa Claus figurines are represented by almost every country she can think of - including Native American, Spanish and Eastern European versions.

Thomas purchases the Santas as greenware (she likes the brand Kimple) and paints them after they've been fired. Each project is then sealed and often becomes a Christmas gift for one of her six children. One daughter recently counted 14 Santas from Thomas.

She started painting 30 years ago under the influence of her older sister. As her own talent blossomed, she included unique art throughout her home - famous artist Mary Renfro painted a lattice and flower mural in her dining room before murals returned to popularity.

"I enjoy doing it," Thomas said. "I like to see them turn out."

Standard versions of Christmas decorations aren't quite what Thomas has in mind when starting a project. "Some people like to have everything matching, but I guess I'm kind of different," she said.

As a stay-at-home mom, Thomas said her children kept her busy, but when they were playing with neighborhood kids, she found time to improve her skills and build a collection.

The hobby keeps Thomas busy year-round. With a stash of unpainted ceramics handy and six children who appreciate her craft, she said she's not stopping anytime soon.

"They're so different. You can use your imagination with the colors - and besides that, they're pretty," Thomas said.

By Sara Quam
Some artists are lofty or snobbish. Others, like Harriet Thomas, just enjoy creating. To her, art projects are another way to share love with her family and fill the hours of the day.

By Lori Ehde
With all the recent snow days, students and staff at area school districts are wondering how much the make-up days will cut into their summer vacation.

In addition to late starts and early dismissals, Luverne School District has so far missed three full days of classes because of bad weather.

According to Superintendent Vince Schaefer, no snow days were built into the school calendar this year, with the intent that any missed days would be made up at the end of the year.

School was originally set to dismiss for summer on Wednesday, May 30, with graduation set for Sunday, June 3.

At this rate, snow days will be made up on Thursday and Friday, May 31 and June 1, and the following Monday, June 4, after graduation on June 3.

Because some semester high school courses may suffer from the missed days this semester, Schaefer said administration is considering lengthening the first semester.

It wouldn't mean scheduling classes on holidays or other planned days off, it would simply mean changing the official cut-off; date for the semester. Right now it's scheduled to end Jan. 22.

The state allows districts a great deal of flexibility in scheduling their calendar year. In Luverne, the calendar calls for 175 student contact days, and as long as that is satisfied, it doesn't matter if snow days are built into the calendar or tacked on in the spring.

With recent mild winters, a committee of teachers, staff and administrators decided to set up snow days at the end of the year this year.

Missed school becomes a problem not only for teachers and students working to meet graduation standards, but it factors into labor union contracts.

"The expectation is if we sign the teachers on for 182 days, they get paid for 182 days, and it really complicates the schedule," Schaefer said.

"With missed days, you run into the possibility of paying staff for days they haven't actually worked."

Schaefer said the district is nearing a point where instead of calling off school, it may call for buses to run on plowed routes only.

"We're at that point now," he said. "There are parents who will choose not to send their kids on snow days, and we respect that."

He said parents have already been good about calling bus drivers when roads are closed or calling the school when they’re keeping their children home.

"It takes a lot of communication with this kind of weather," Schaefer said.

By Sara Quam
Saturday's weather restricted shopping with furious winds and drifting snow during the last full weekend before Christmas.

Main Street Luverne was almost vacant by Saturday afternoon, and the rest of the city wasn't much better. The open prairie felt gusts of up to 50 mph and wind chill temperatures at 57 below.

Amid the depressed shopping environment, however, Sears stood out as a haven of retail profits. Owner Tim Gust said Saturday was the second-biggest day of sales ever. Those sales beat some very large Sears stores for the day.

"I was as shocked as Sears was," Gust said. "There were a lot of bigger items sold and we had a promotion for the day, but even with that, I was shocked at how busy it was."

The Furniture House closed early to allow out-of-town employees to get home safely. Sears was supposed to be closed at 6 p.m., but with a constant flow of customers, it stayed open until 7 p.m.

Pamida didn't fare as well. Manager Kary Schroeder said the store suffered a sharp decrease in sales from this time last year. The store, which would have been open until 9 p.m., closed at 5, and before that sent most employees home early.

The Rocking Horse, downtown Luverne, was open until 4 p.m., but owner Marcia Ossenfort called Saturday's conditions "an expensive snowstorm." Her store had profits at only 20 percent of what would have been normal for Saturday.

Luverne True Value kept its doors open as usual and had a steady business but not nearly as many shoppers as the past few weekends have attracted. Shoppers who did venture out to True Value were mostly looking for necessary items, not Christmas gifts.

One business that saw a "substantial increase" in sales was Palace Video. "We like bad weather," said owner Larry Boll.

G&S Auto Service was busy Sunday towing vehicles that had been left on Interstate 90 and Highway 75. Saturday's towing was put on hold because roads were closed by the Highway Patrol. The towing workers did get some work done Saturday night after winds subsided, but the bulk was done Sunday.

Anne Stegenga (right) purchases priority postage for two large boxes she sent to Alaska Monday with the hopes they'd arrive before Christmas. Clerk Dawne Heintzman (left) said the stream of customers made Monday the busiest mailing day for the Christmas season so far. The Luverne Post Office maintained a steady pace weighing packages and sifting through cards. Saturday was a different story. In-town delivery was completed, but some mail couldn't be sorted until Monday because of travel-prohibitive weather in rural routes. Employees had to hand-sort Saturday's leftover mail because of an overload needing to be machine sorted. Trucks loaded for routes early Monday because weather was expected to worsen before the usual late-afternoon loading time.

The Christmas holiday is typically busy for the Luverne Post Office, but this year, weather has played a part in speed of delivery. Once the mail leaves Luverne, Postmaster Charles Egland said other areas in the region may hold up delivery because of poor weather conditions. Priority mail usually takes two to three days to arrive at any destination, but this year, Egland said patrons could almost count on waiting a full three days before arrival. Luverne staff work extra hours, especially the part-timers, but Egland said hiring extra help isn't usually necessary. Postal rates go up a penny after Christmas - a stamp will begin costing 34¢ Jan. 7.

Photo by Sara Quam

The Hills-Beaver Creek girls fell from the basketball unbeaten ranks when they traveled to Rock Rapids, Iowa, Saturday.

Home-standing Central Lyon took advantage of a cold shooting performance by the Patriots to register a 56-33 win over H-BC.

H-BC, which made 29 percent of its field goals and free throws in the game, experienced an especially rough second half.

The Patriots were outscored 37-14 in the final 16 minutes of play, when the game was taken over by CL.

"We just went cold and turned the ball over too many times in the second half," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "Then we tried to play catch-up and started to foul them, and they made their free throws in the fourth quarter."

H-BC played well enough to earn a 12-10 edge in the first quarter before CL rallied to knot the score at 19 by halftime.

The Lions opened a 33-23 lead in the third quarter before outscoring the Patriots 23-10 in the fourth quarter to win by 23.

Shanna Tilstra netted a team-high eight points for the Patriots.

Becky Broesder charted five rebounds and four assists for the Patriots, while Jody Rentschler chipped in five rebounds.

The 2-1 Patriots host Southwest Christian tonight before playing in Lake Benton Tuesday.

Box score
C.Tilstra 2 0 0-0 4, Olson 0 0 1-2 1, Sandstede 0 1 0-0 3, Brandt 0 0 1-2 1, Rentschler 2 0 0-2 4, S.Tilstra 4 0 0-1 8, Broesder 1 0 0-4 2, Rozeboom 0 0 0-0 0, Boeve 2 0 0-0 4, Arp 2 0 2-3 6.

Team statistics
H-BC: 14 of 49 field goals (29 percent), four of 14 free throws (29 percent), 23 rebounds, 21 turnovers.
CL: 23 of 49 field goals (47 percent), nine of 14 free throws (64 percent), 31 rebounds, 20 turnovers.

The Hills-Beaver Creek girls opened Tri-County Conference basketball play by turning in a dominating performance in Bigelow Thursday.

The Patriots controlled play on both ends of the court during a convincing 86-28 victory over the Faith Christian Falcons.

With everything clicking for the 2-0 Patriots, H-BC coach Tom Goehle was able to substitute freely while getting great efforts from all of his players.

"It was a good chance for everyone to play, and they all played hard," he said.
The Patriots made a sizzling 58 percent of their field goals and 68 percent of their free throws in the 58-point win.

H-BC controlled the boards by a 32-14 margin, and forced the Falcons to turn the ball over 40 times in the game.

The Patriots got off to a great start by taking a 20-6 lead in the first quarter and turning it into a 28-point halftime advantage (44-16) by outscoring the Falcons 24-10 in the second quarter.

Erin Boeve, who passed for four assists led the charge by netting 16 of her team high 20 points in the first half.

The Patriots increased their lead to 41 points (64-23) by the end of the third quarter before outscoring FC 22-5 in the final eight minutes of play.

Jody Rentschler set the pace in the second half by netting nine of her 15 counters.

Becky Broesder had a big game that featured a double-double with 11 rebounds and 17 points to go along with five steals and five assists.

Shanna Tilstra added 10 points, seven steals and four assists to the cause, while Sarah Rozeboom chipped in 12 points.

Box score
C.Tilstra 1 0 0-0 2, Olson 3 0 0-0 6, Sandstede 0 0 0-2 0, Brandt 0 0 0-0 0, Rentschler 6 0 3-3 15, S.Tilstra 4 0 2-2 10, Broesder 8 0 1-1 17, Rozeboom 6 0 0-0 12, Boeve 8 0 4-7 20.

Team statistics
H-BC: 38 of 66 field goals (58 percent), 10 of 15 free throws (67 percent), 32 rebounds, 23 turnovers.
FC: 11 of 27 field goals (41 percent), six of 14 free throws (43 percent), 14 rebounds, 40 turnovers.

By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek recorded its second consecutive boys' basketball win by upending Minneota 69-58 in Hills Tuesday.

The home-standing Patriots opened a big lead in the first eight minutes of play and made it stand up while posting an 11-point victory.

H-BC now has won two straight games after starting the campaign with a 0-3 mark.

The Patriots will try to extend their winning streak when they host Southwest Christian and Central Lyon tomorrow and Monday respectively.

A solid first quarter proved to be the difference for H-BC against the Vikings.

The Patriots raced to a 22-9 cushion in the first eight minutes of play. Minneota played the hosts evenly the rest of the game but never did overcome H-BC's solid start.

"We got off to a great start," said Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema. "We were up 22-9, and we were really playing well. We played evenly the rest of the way."

Minneota trimmed H-BC's lead to 11 points (41-30) by halftime, but the difference remained at 11 points when the third (56-47) and fourth quarters (69-58) were complete.

Matt Buck, who led the Patriots with nine rebounds and 24 points, tossed in 17 points in the first half.

Lance Crawford, who added five rebounds, netted seven of his nine points to lead H-BC in scoring during the second half.

Chris Fransman added 13 points and three steals to the winning cause.

Lyle DeBoer contributed five rebounds, four assists and four steals, while Brad Haak chipped in six assists and five steals.

Box score
D.DeBoer 0 0 0-1 0, Van Batavia 1 0 0-0 2, Van Maanen 1 0 0-0 2, Fransman 5 1 0-0 13, Haak 2 0 3-7 7, L.DeBoer 2 0 0-0 4, Van Wyhe 1 0 0-0 2, Top 2 0 2-2 6, Crawford 4 0 1-1 9, Buck 9 1 3-7 24.

Team statistics
H-BC: 29 of 57 field goals (51 percent), nine of 18 free throws (50 percent), 31 rebounds, 30 turnovers.
Minneota: 24 of 62 (39 percent), 10 of 16 free throws (63 percent), 22 rebounds, 27 turnovers.

Miranda Jurczewsky (left) and Brent VandenBussche enjoy playing outside during a break from harsh winter weather Thursday, Dec. 7. It was sunny that day, and temperatures were tolerable. Both children are cared for at the Lois Shaffer day care in Beaver Creek.