Koa Brandon Daniels was born to Micaela Bauer and Teak Daniels at the Juneau Family Birth Center on Nov. 10 at 11:41a.m. He weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. “Our family is healthy and doing well,” said Micaela.
Lori and Michael Carter welcomed daughter Maizie Grace on Nov. 21 at 2:06 p.m. in Juneau at Bartlett Hospital. Maizie weighed 8 pounds and was 21 inches long. She joins big sister Jemma Joy. Lori’s mother Joyce Webster is here to help the family transition back home.
Crystal and Al Badgely traveled to Spokane recently to babysit 8-month-old grandson Cedar for a weekend while son Hunter and daughter-in-law Emily were in classes. They were joined for Thanksgiving by daughter Serena Badgley who is currently attending Pacific University in Hillsboro, Ore. “We visited Hunter’s counseling office and got to see our granddaughter crawl for the first time. Al worked on some projects around the house. We all went to get their Christmas tree together, and we found out later (via Facebook) that the Santa Claus at the tree farm was Teresa Land’s brother,” said Crystal.
Tom Morphet has returned from a trip to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In his hometown of Media, Pa., Tom attended an elementary school reunion and spent time with dad Norman Morphet and brothers John, Paul and Norm. He also took in a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game and saw an off-Broadway show in New York City with niece Melissa Morphet of Brooklyn, who works in the film industry. In Wisconsin, Tom visited Rose Ackley, mother of former Haines resident Jamie Ackley, in Beloit. He took a road-trip with Alex Swift to Amherst, Wis., to see Maggie Stern, at her store, Planet B on the town’s Main Street.
Daniel Stickler, James Hart, Tom Ward and Jordan Baumgartner traveled to Juneau over the holiday weekend to play in the Black Friday Basketball Tournament. Two friends from Hoonah also played on their team. “We didn’t do so well but had a lot of fun and it gave us a reason to take our kids to Juneau,” said Baumgartner.
Many Haines artists traveled Thanksgiving weekend to the Juneau Public Market. Sisters Melissa Ganey and Kaitlin Combs had a booth for their clothing company and were surprised when they couldn’t find an open restaurant on Thanksgiving. They ended up with a store-bought chicken and fixings to make an impromtu holiday meal. Other vendors included Josh Benassi and Cassie Miller who sell macramé jewelry. “Public Market was awesome, we have a ton of orders and sold out of a number of items,” said Josh. Mandy Ramsey, Mark and Julie Cozzi, Julie Vance, Jim Green, and Teri Podsiki all sold their wares as well. “Haines is so well represented there. It’s great,” said Ganey.
Renae Minor and Ryan Olsen recently celebrated Renae’s birthday in Thailand. The couple went to the National Lantern Festival in Chiang Mai and watched as thousands of lanterns were lit. As Renae and Ryan released their lantern, Ryan proposed to Renae. The couple are planning a summer wedding.
Rebekah McCoy and her mother Lora McCoy chose the Lighting of the Library theme this year. “We used the original Nutcracker Suite as inspiration and worked to create many of the scenes from the ballet. We wanted to create something for everyone, so there were details on many different levels that could be seen, depending on what you know about the Nutcracker,” said Rebekah. More than 35 volunteers helped decorate. Many were a new generation of volunteers that helped with the creativity and assembly of all the decorations.
Kristin White’s third grade class watched at the public library as the Mars InSight landed on Monday morning along with many community members. The 300 million mile journey from Earth to Mars began on May 5. “One thing that struck me in watching the crew on the ground as each landing stage was accomplished was how different the ‘face’ of NASA is today compared to when I watched launches as a child, with so many young people, and plenty of women, now working for the Jet Propulsion Lab,” said retired science teacher Patty Brown, who was in attendance. “It is truly amazing what human beings can accomplish these days with technology, persistence and creativity,” added library employee Erik Stevens.