For Drumheller resident Judy Deardoff, her family’s Christmas get together involves a lot of food. Not only eating it, but baking it.
    Judy Deardoff’s family her and her eight siblings holds their annual Christmas get together on the long weekend in November,  and the family focuses on baking up a storm during that time.
    “Everybody from newborn babies and up. Anybody who is old enough to use a rolling pin, and even if they’re not, they help make lefsa and cookies,” explains Deardoff.
    Lefsa is Scandanavian, which is a part of Judy’s heritage from her father’s side, and also part of her husband’s heritage.
    Lefsa is a combination of cold mashed potatoes, flour, salt, cream, and butter. After it’s mixed well, it’s formed into balls, then rolled out and fried on a grill. Electric grills with a large, round surface that looks similar to an extra-large pizza pan, specifically for cooking lefsa, are available.
    Deardoff describes lefsa as similar to a nan bread or pita, with people adding butter, sometimes sugar to enjoy on it.
    Other Scandanavian treats  include krinkle cake (deep fried dough rosettes), and krumkaka (cream cake), which is made on a round press that looks similar to a waffle press.
    The krumkaka dough is cooked, removed from the press and  shaped into a tube while still warm. Judy describes krumkakas as similar in flavour to waffle cones. Often people drape the warm shells around small dish, to form a dessert cup.
    Once the krumkaka cools, it can be filled with pudding, whipped cream, etc, and decorated, often with a little bit of chocolate; often it is enjoyed as a treat on its own.
    Deardoff said her family’s baking tradition started in 1972 when her Mom  organized a baking weekend at Judy’s twin sister’s Joyce’s. Joyce was a new mom on a farm north of Mannville, Alberta, and needed some family around.
    The Christmas get-together/baking spree that began with Deardoff’s Mom and sisters now has anywhere from 25 to 65 family members attend annually. Deardoff said she had about 30 family members for this year’s get together held at her and her husband’s Drumheller home.
    Family members bring their favourite recipes along with their ingredients and at the end of the day, the result is a mountain of baked goods.
    Deardoff estimates the family bakes up a minimum of 35 different cookies, plus the popcorn treat with almonds and sugared coating called poppycock.
    Although Judy’s mother passed away in 2002, the family holiday baking tradition has carried on. One of Judy’s brother-in-laws compiled a cookbook of family recipes used from 1972 to 2002, so the kids and grand kids will have that special piece of their family heritage to help carry on their family’s wonderful holiday tradition.

Hope College is optimistic for the coming year and looking forward to all the possibilities open to the College.
The board of the not-for-profit College is busy setting up  a new committee to help guide the College through its future.
    The new visionary, or founding committee, is to bring together leaders of the community who are interested in the success of the school, said College president Jon Ohlhauser.
    The new committee will conduct a review of the College’s strategic development, he said, and commit themselves to the long-term stainability and development of the College.
    “It will bring some stability and some good, deep support from the community,” Ohlhauser explains. The new committee plans to begin meeting in January.
    Ohlhauser said there are currently seven community members serving on the College board of directors.
    As far as the current situation for the College, Ohlhauser said the College is on course half-way through its second year of operations.
    “We’re right in the budget, we’re right on track. Everything has been paid, to date, but obviously we’re going to need the support of the community to finish off the first three years of our launch strategy.”
    The College finished year one, having gathered $130,000 of the $150,000 it had targeted for operations. Ohlhauser said it adjusted for the shortfall by cutting back where they could, including on marketing. Now halfway through fiscal year two, which ends July 31, 2015, the College has raised about $70,000 of the targeted $150,000 for its operating budget.
     Ohlhauser said the College is finding the major sources of funding are from residents in the local community, and those wholive in the College’s region, which stretches up to Stettler, east to Oyen, and over to the Bassano area and Strathmore.
    He notes the College gets a lot of local support from the oil industry, and so far there hasn’t been any scaling back of contributions due to low oil prices.
     Ohlhauser said the College has applied for granting of federal charitable status, so currently Starland County, as one of the College’s partners, is issuing receipts for donations through its office in Morrin.
    “We knew it would take 12 to 18 months to finalize that (charitable status), so we’re hoping an agent is assigned to that in March,” said Ohlhauser, “then we can continue to work on any additional details they need.”
    Ohlhauser is also waiting on the College of Licensed Practical Nurses of Alberta for completion of its policy review for partnering with institutions, such as Hope College, who want to offer an LPN program. Ohlhauser said he’s been advised that process should be completed by March 2015.
    “It could be a completely new process, it could be the old process with a couple of additional steps, I have to wait and see until their work is completed,” he explains,adding he doesn’t want to speculate on changes at this point.
    The College is also looking forward to continued community engagement and graduating their first four students in spring 2015, two of which have received job offers in their field, said Ohlhauser.
    At its regular Monday meeting December 15, Drumheller Town Council approved a $2,500 contribution for 2014 and a $2,500 contribution for early 2015 to help  Hope College fund its operations.