December 1, 1956 The Scouts and the Three Kings, The Moths and the DDT, and The Home Improvement Contest and the Prize Money

The scouts 3 Kings ornaments

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"It's about bedtime for I've been working all evening on a sample Xmas tree ornament.  My scouts have to make ornaments plus a gift for their mothers & dads during December.  I always have to make the things first so they can see what they are doing.  The Scout office gave each Den Mother $10. to buy materials during the year so I don't have to buy the colored paper, paste, etc.  I've spent a lot of time on scouts this week.  All day Tuesday and then Tuesday night we had a program that my group had a part in.  It was a good program so I guess the work was worthwhile.

I know Beulah's family will enjoy the furnace.  I haven't heard from her since I wrote to her.

Our house looks like we just moved in and has most of the week.  Our big rug is at the cleaners so the living room looks so bare.  We started to turn the rug around and found moths in two spots.  They were right at the edge so it won't show much.  We have literally turned the house inside out since then and sprayed everything with DDT.  The house stinks like spray but there wasn't anything else to do.  We didn't find moths in the clothes closets at all.  There were a few under the edge of the dining room rug but they hadn't eaten on it.  We think they were in the house because it had been empty so long when we came in.  We are lucky we found them before anything was really ruined.

I have entered the Better Homes & Gardens home improvement contest but I'm not going to spend the prize money until I get it.  It was a lot of work to fill in the entry form and I probably won't get anywhere with it but so many people talked about the changes we made to our house I thought it would be fun to try.

B has an all-day meeting tomorrow at school.  We have invited Mildred Wells and her son for supper so I'll spend most of the day cooking.  I got a little turkey.

I've started on my Christmas cards but am not finished yet.  Helen and Billy sent us an announcement when their baby came and I've never answered that.  I cut out a blouse about two weeks ago but haven't even looked at it since and I could use it too.  I want to clean the living room ceiling while the rug is out.  It will be so much easier to move the furniture around without the rug.

I am about to fall asleep so I guess I'd better go to better bed."

                           Lots of love,

                                   Bonnie

Clipping of Ann and friends welcoming the Christmas tree at school

NOTE:  Bonnie was always entering contests for fun--original recipes, clothing designs, jewelry and quilt patterns, etc.  I used to tease her about it, dismissing them based on the time and effort it took to enter.  In the late 70's and on a friendly bet, I challenged her to a recipe contest and submitted one without ever having tested it.  Her response was, "Why Ann, you can't do that!"  I did, and to our great shock and surprise, I won $50.00 for it.  We enjoyed many years of joking about it.  Below is the recipe with the name changed by the editors to reflect the theme of the entry, using herbs, if I recall correctly.  Hence, the name of the blog, Haddock and Dill.

Over the next 20 years, Bonnie would win national recognition for a variety of intricate and beautiful Hawaiian quilts, patterns and winning designs.