It's 11 degrees outside and we're quietly agonizing over whether to say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, so this must be the December edition of the Kavarna eNewsletter. Whatever you happen to be celebrating or not celebrating, the end of December is a great time to reconnect with friends and family. Especially the ones who moved away from town. We see a lot of this year after year at Kavarna, and it makes us happy.

To make your holiday get-togethers with friends and family extra festive we will be featuring special Eggnog Lattés, Reindeer Mochas, and the traditional holiday Herbed Mac & Cheese.

Broadway during the holidays: we'd be untrue to the cause of the Broadway District if we did not mention that the many fine retail businesses on Broadway are open until 8pm on Wednesday nights through the Holiday season. Check out onbroadway.org for a comprehensive list of stores. We think you'll agree that it's a fine thing to support locally owned businesses.

Snowbabies and Other Stories: as expectant parents, we're glad opportunities like this exist! Bev and Stu Smith—who played Scrooge in the Evergreen Production of A Christmas Carol for many years—will be reading Snowbabies and other Christmas stories for kids on Dec. 10th and 17th at 10am, 11am, 1pm, and 2pm; at the Neville Public Museum. We can only hope this becomes an annual tradition! You can also check out their ongoing Holiday Memories: Prange's Christmas Windows exhibit. Children 10 and under get in for free.

—Linda and Alex Galt

A retrospective of Lori Jae Reich's paintings will be exhibited at Kavarna throughout December and into the new year. If you have not already been by and seen it, come and take a look... a close look. She's creating some of the most interesting and noteworthy artwork in Wisconsin. Her paintings are densely political and concerned with social justice; making fierce statements through the use of allegorical newts and other creatures. She's been widely exhibited across the United States. For more information, go to lorijreich.com, but really the only way to really understand what she does is to see her art in person.

Heidi Lorenz of the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Brown County—and a Kavarna customer!—has provided us with the following opportunities to prove our worth to Santa and anyone else (including ourselves) who might be judging us:

• 1.) Walking in a Winter Wonderland: it's not too late to sign up to sing Christmas carols at the N.E.W. Zoo for their Winter Wonderland event. They may also be looking for ice sculptors, amateur electricians, and holiday crafts people. Contact Linda at the N.E.W. Zoo: 920-434-4162.
• 2.) Addressing Christmas Cards: the residents of Grancare Nursing Center could use a hand addressing Christmas Card envelopes. If you're penmanship is up to the task, contact Chris Guido at 494-4525.
• 3.) Delivering Meals to Homebound Seniors: the Aging and Disability Resource Center is recruiting volunteers to deliver meals to homebound seniors. Meals are delivered Monday-Friday from 11am to 12:30pm, their volunteer schedule is extremely flexible. Contact Heidi at (920) 448-4300.

If you're aware of other volunteer opportunities that you would like to share with your fellow Kavarna patrons in the next eNewsletter, let us know at info@kavarna.com.

Paul W. writes:

GREEN BAY GREEN DRINKS is a new monthly 'social space' with its ninth meeting Thursday Dec. 15, 2005 at Kavarna, in Green Bay's near westside downtown.

If some people suggest that "green" is your middle name, you'll probably find value in Green Drinks Green Bay. At this monthly event, people who have a passion for anything "environmental" meet for friendly conversation. Since we started in April 2005, we've been visited by folks with a wide variety of interests: science, art, politics, music, film, health, psychology, nutrition to name a few. Many work in an environmental field as professionals, educators, entrepeneurs or neighborhood activists.

If you look elsewhere on the website www.greendrinks.org, you'll see that "Green Drinks" is an international movement. We start to gather shortly after 6pm, but don't worry if you can't show up until much later. Peak attendance has been 7:30-8:30pm so far. The hours you attend will influence who you may meet, however. People come and go all evening until Kavarna closes at 10pm. Kavarna is a smokefree vegetarian coffeehouse/restaurant that sells bottled beers and wine. All ages welcome. Feel free to bring your kids. There's no agenda, no speaker. If you have a nametag, wear it. Wear something green if you can. Bring literature if you want to share news of what you are into.

We understand that you may not want to receive eNewsletters from Kavarna; we're generally against unsolicited emails too. If you'd like to be removed from our e-mail list, or if there's a more appropriate address that we should be using, please write to us at info@kavarna.com, and let us know.

A Note on Privacy: We will not share your e-mail with anyone for any reason.