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Greetings, Flanders. Pretty soon I will be writing about how all of the stores are decorated for the holidays and how all of the television commercials are now featuring Christmas music. Oh, wait a minute. That started a month ago!

Seriously, what is the story with that? We cannot even enjoy one holiday without having to stress about the one after it. It was only Halloween and the stores were decorating for the holidays. I understand it benefits us all to shop early, so that we can really appreciate our family and friends for the season, but come on! Halloween!? I am hardly in the mood to start my Christmas shopping.

I do, however, love to look at all the trees decorated in the stores as we lost all of our Christmas tree ornaments in the fire. Yes, we lost them all. All of the “our first” ornaments, the kids’s ornaments from each year with the dates on them, all of the handmade ornaments from the kids from Christmas’s past. All of them.

While writing this sentence, I just realized that all of our pictures with Santa are gone, too. I used to put them on the tree every year. As sad as it sounds, we are now faced with coming up with ideas for our tree this year. If any of you have ideas that you would like to share, please e-mail me! I would love to get your input.

One more suggestion before moving on: put your address book for your holiday cards in your safe deposit box. It is another lesson that I have learned. Now, I have only a few addresses for family and close friends. I will have to send out the rest of my cards when I get cards with a return address on them.

This will be a very interesting Christmas as we learn of more and more things lost in the fire. Still, we are very thankful for our own safety and the fact that we are still together and happy.

So, while on the subject of being thankful, parents of children with juvenile diabetes are thankful for the constant advances being made to help find a cure. Ralphie’s Crusaders, organized by Ralph and Emy Grey, are sponsoring the second annual Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund Spaghetti Dinner at the Riverhead Moose Lodge on Sunday, November 22. The fund-raiser will run from 3 until 7 p.m.

There will be a great pasta dinner, dessert, a deejay, a 50/50 raffle, a Chinese auction, a cash bar and much more all for a small donation of $15 for adults and $5 for children. The dinner will include pasta, bread, salad, soda and dessert. All proceeds will benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund.

Stop down and enjoy a great dinner while helping a great cause. The Riverhead Moose Lodge is located at 51 Madison Street. For more information about the event, you can e-mail me at newsinflanders@aol.com and I will forward to the organizers. Hope to see you there.

Just a reminder: Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the Big Duck lighting on Wednesday, December 2, at 7 p.m. It is always a fun time.

If pasta isn’t your thing, then how about a concert at the Riverhead Free Library featuring the very talented international concert pianist Tanya Gabrielian? The concert will be held on Sunday, November 22, at 2 p.m., in the large downstairs meeting room at the library.

Tickets are reasonably priced at $25 each. There is no charge for students. The concert will be followed by a Meet the Artist reception. For more information about this event or other upcoming concerts in the series, call the library at 727-3228.

The next meeting of the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association will be held on Monday, November 23, at 7 p.m., at the David W. Crohan Community Center on Flanders Road. This month’s guest speaker will be Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman who will be discussing important local issues like the sex offender trailers.

FRNCA members are still collecting new and unused toys for their holiday toy drive, and they are also collecting new and slightly used coats for children and adults. The donations can be brought to Monday’s meeting or dropped off at the Flanders Firehouse.

Finally, FRNCA’s annual holiday party is scheduled for Monday, December 14, from 6 to 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children under 12, and they will be available for purchase at Monday’s meeting. For more information, e-mail frnca@southamptonwest.com or call Brad Bender at 678-7703.

Peconic Bay Medical Center’s HomeHealth Services will be holding an accident prevention seminar at the Riverhead Town Senior Center, 60 Shade Tree Lane, on Tuesday, November 24, at 11:30 a.m. The seminar will focus on the dangers of mixing medications and how to prevent accidents in the home. For more information, please call the center at 548-6592.

Well, friends, that is all for this week. See you around the neighborhood.