BE MERRY

I t's time to admit it, you've got turkeys on your mind. For local carnivores, the Waitsburg Lions Club is selling smoked turkeys. If your pets or the hood of your car was assaulted by the rogue birds, this could be an oddly satisfying purchase.

The turkeys will be on sale for $30 each at the Waitsburg Grocery Store from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.

For vegetarians, vegans and people who don't hold grudges against animals that tend to drown when it rains, turkeys can still be the name of the game with the Dayton Kiwanis Club's Turkey Bingo. From 3 to 9 p.m. on Nov. 17 in the Dayton Elementary School multi-purpose room there will be food, prizes, a food drive for blackout cards, a turkey for every bingo and even free babysitting.

And if it officially gets too cold to go out, check out the e-reader tutorial at the Dayton Memorial Library at 10 a.m. on Nov. 16 to learn about a variety of different eReaders.

When the snow starts to fall, nothing sounds more appealing than a good book. But once you get warm under the blanket, rifling through a bookshelf or even leaving the house to buy or borrow something on the "to-read" list can sound like a trek across the uncharted snowy plains.

Instead, stay warm with a seemingly infinite list of books at your fingertips and maybe even a big enough font size to see through your tryptophan-induced droopy eyelids.

Mace Mead Works will host an art reception for the show "Hush" by Sarah Lillegard from 7 to 10 p.m. on Nov. 16. Lillegard's work will be on display until Dec. 17. If the art isn't festive enough for die-hard holiday lovers, the mead bar will be releasing Christmas specials and new wines after Thanksgiving as a Christmas Kickoff special.

Christmas Kickoff, which is sure to get even the biggest Scrooge into the holiday spirit, will be on Nov. 23 and 24 proving once again that Dayton is "the town that still believes."

The kickoff will include crafts, cartoons, mule-drawn hayrides and other holiday-themed events. With art, wine tasting and live events, there is sure to be more to enjoy than any one person can attend. The event will be complete with a lighted parade at 6 p.m. on Nov. 23, fireworks the same night at 7 p.m. and lighted home tours starting immediately after the fireworks. The lighted home tours will also have a vote for the best displays, just to keep everyone who decides to openly celebrate feeling like they have a standard to uphold.

Christmas kickoff will also have shopping, live music, art and wine tasting at Mace Mead Works and Dumas Station winery, as well as the Liberty Theater's pro- duction of "Annie: The Musical."

The full list of events and times is available on the Dayton Chamber of Commerce website at historicdayton.com.

As November draws to a close, local eateries will be featur- ing live music. The Grainhouse Grill will have live music at 7 p.m. on Nov. 30. Threshers will showcase the band Tuck Foster and the Mossrites from 8:30 until about 12:30.