bean bounce...grains get a lift from brazilian weather. cattle collapse...feeder prices continue t tpush profits south for feed yards. a long look at weather. "are we going to see a big change in the weather pattern? i'll have my forecast coming up in weather." in john's world... "...the copop1 climate treaty, there's something in it for you." and later...christmas in the country. u.s. farm report - brought to you by the dependable, long lasting, chevy sivverado. now for the news that moved the markets this week...weather in brazil giving a little boost to soybeans to end the month. january soybean futures rallying to start the week-- climbing roughly forty cents and with striking distance of 9 dollars. speculation over dry y ather in brazil leading the charge highehe.. even though some places saw rains this week, it wasn't enough to push beans back lower. even though there wereome beneficial rains in

seems to be keeping a bid underneith the market. weather forecasts callng for rain in major growing areas this week but forecasts into next week predicting below normal precipitation and above normal temperatures for nearly all of brazil. one of the brightest export stories in recent years has been shipments of grain sorgpum to china. new usda data shows increasing production of the grain is pushing prices lower. t t economic research service says grain sorghum is sitting just above 3 dollars per bushel---now back below the price of corn. over the last 2 years sorghum at times trading at a 20 percent premium to corn on strong demandndrom china. meanwhile from our partners at beef today, the crisis continues for america's cattle feeders. according to sterling marketing feedlots are now losing nearly 700 dollars a head--that's more than 400-million dollars in just the last week. sterling says 2015 will go into the record books as the worst year in

price of all fresh beef in november was about 6 dollars a und. that's down morthan 3 cents from the month prior--but still about a dime higher than a year ago. withthlaughter prices are dropping faster than retail, the marketing spread is currently record large. on the pork side of the ledger, processors setting record for hog g aughter last week. j jt less than 2 point 5 million head (2.493) were processed. that's beats the previous record by 23-thousand--set back in december of 2007. the national barrow and gilt price last week standing at 47-81 per hundred. oil prices working to find a floor after falling to it's lowest price in 11 years this week. warmer than normal winter temperatures and growing supplies of crude adding pressure to the market. world wide, oil production continues on record pace. that has crude looking at it's biggest monthly percentage drop in some 7 years. traders say moving markets higher is going to be tough. those are the headlines.....teorologist mike hoffman joins us now with weather... mike we only get you

sounds good clinton, you know we've been talking about this change in the weather pattern coming up. it looked more and more likely as we head into the first of the year. the big question down the road does it stick and hold or does it go back to what we've been seeing and what we've been seeing is the trough in the west ridge and the st what we're probabab going to go to is the opposite of that. as you can see as we evolve the computer models are starting to show more of a trough by later this week and into the weekend so a quick shot of colder air by the first of the year but warmer out west. now again does this go back or does it stick and hold. that's one thing we'll be watching. so my 30 day outlook for temperatures, above normal. northern lakes all the way back into the nororwest. below normal for the southern plains, parts of the southeast near normal elsewhere so this is a big change from what we've seen over the past 30 days. 30 day outlook for precipitatioiothen above normal, typical el nino situation through the southern and central tier of states. below normal the northern lakes but especially the northern poions of the rockies. thanks mike. nestl the world's

it uses roughly 20 million pounds of eggs a year. this as the egg industry works to deal with aandslide of companies demanding cage free product. and finally the national corn growers association announcing the latest winner of it's 2015 yield contest. this year winner setting a new contest record and all time high of 532 shels per acre. the grower...david hula of charles city virginia. ncga says five national entries surpassed the 400- plus bushel mark. that's it for news. jim bower and tommy grisafafjoin me for our marketing round table when we return. recieve a free trial of the daily market letter and gain knowledge about current market conditions from the professionals at bower trading. view the markets like never before. go to bowertrading dot

bower trading. thank you both for being here. let's talk ange juice futures or something complelely different than grains and livestock because it's been tough here the last few weeks. hasn't it, jim? >> yeah, my dad told me to buy uix months ago and i didn't, so now he's mad at me. [ laughter ] >> i know. i mea feels like we need to start talking about different markets these days because it has just been a tgh road the last few months, well reallthe last year 2015. >> well, the only good news about when markets goo down is when they go back up. as jim knows and i know and people in the commodity business, you can make an incredible amount of money selling markets, but we think of that as that as a speculator. obviously most of our customers start the day long the market, so in general i find people like ourselves being cheerleaders for higher prices, but they'll come, and you know, we saw some of that in natural gas. you want to talk about a different marke >> sure. i haven't traded natural gas in a few years because the price is so low, and

gas was up 9%. i started thinking, you know, could you imagine if corn or beans were up 9%? we would be going crazy, but they're not. they're down a percent, s a market that low, that cheap in price it's like holding a baba in a pool like you do with your kids. when you let that ball go it explodes up. now of course it's just getting a little bit above the water, but the force when it comes up is very powerful, and that's what big bear markets do in commodities, in my opinion. >> yeah, and, jim, we've kind of seen this across the board. not just one commodity, but multiples. if we look at an index of a group of these commodities we can see that. >> right. my staff and i, we watch that bloomberg commodity index very, very closely. it's been in existence, i believe, since 1999, but i think on wednesday of last week i think it hit the all we're down about 26% for commodity pricing in general this year. i'm a little taken back by that really, given where the level of stock market is, but i think there's kind of a phenom going on right now where

on weakness, and it seems like, it's almost like an attack, but eventually the lower we go the more demand will be built and eventually we'll get a turn around, so we'll just have to be careful until that time actually comes around. >> yeah, and, tommy, we did see a little bit of a bump in a couple markets to start this week. if you look at beans they were up just a little bit. >> there's south american weather in play,y,nd the funds are short, and i think the farmer's stubborn in general. we love them, but they have staying power. some people do the, i don't want to get paid till january first thing, and so i can't say it's because it's cold outside. typically this time of year if we see a bit in the beans it's because of a big snowstorm, but we got a better chance of a flood than a snowstorm right now, it's very warm out, so the grain can flow, it's just not at a price that maybe the farmer wants and we'll see how things set up the year. >> yeah. as far as setup goes, what are you thinking on south american, gentleme

of opinion. is the crop 100 million metric tons or is it 90 million metic tons? personally i think it's somewhere between 94.5&and say 96 million metric tons assuming the rains arrive by the first week of january, which may or may not happen. the models still have that, but as you know you've got to be really careful with that. the other thing is the value of the brazilian currency has dropped again. i think it's like 1 now, and that prices their soybeans out at around at 13.25 so a lot of the beans in brazil have already been sold. i'd sayayomewhere close to 50% have already been sold, so we may not get as big a flux of soybeans into the global pipelines at harvest time as we all think because the brazilian producer isn't going to be forced to, so we'll see what happens. but, again, the next two or three weeks are extremely important for weather for a large portion of south america. >> yeah. tommy, what do you think? >> i agrewith jim that when you come back at the new yearar wanted to add to ononof his points, our friends up to the north, canadian customers, people i talk to on twitter, when they tell me they can get

next to michigan i'm, like, well, why wouldn't you do it? and so one of the things that comes into play, and we forget to talk about it, is that argentindevalued their currency and brazil,s and all these countries are devaluing, is that when they go to buy their inputs next year theyy might have to pay up a lot more. so they'll sell their product at a high price, and then they'll have sticker shock when they go buy the inputs to grow that crop again next year, and that's something that might come into play next year. >> yeah, so something with a long tail. what se are we watching right now? south america obviously is the big one. we're ending the year here 2015, what else is on your radar? >> well, i think one of the things we can look at are energy prices. there's a lot of traders, analysts, a lot more skilled than i am out of new york and london who are professional energy traders say we're going to go a lot lower, and that may very well be true, but the lolor we go again the higher the demand. and i think this drop that we've seen, now, don't quote me on this. i may be

prices for the north american producer allows them to recoup about $150 billion of disposable income back in their pockets because they're not filling up at $4 gasoline so what's going to happen there is, i think, an opportunity to hedge off gasoline and diesel and fuels through a combination of trade the road. >> all right, that's good news. we' stop there. we'll talk some other markets when we come back. more u.s. farm report right after the break. u.s. farm report brought to you by case ih. be ready next harvest season with anxial ih. welcome back to u.u. farm report. tommy grisafi, jim

macro economy and the difference"por what we're seeing at the end of the year here w wh stocks because that's been kind of a shaky road as well. >> well, word on the street is santa claus coming to town, but the stock market, lhat might be

>> actually raise rates here in america, and we did. we raised rates a quarter percent, and the stock market that day closed up 200. next day closed down 200 and then down 360 last week, and that caught people's attention. you can only lose 500 points so many days in a row before every 401k in america's upset. and so markets are based on prices going up. whenenou talk about stococ people forget that t ocks can even go down. as a commodity trader we're used to things going down. we've gotten too used to it, maybe things are about ready totohange, but the stock market is at pretty lofty levels versus the commodity market to add to jim's point earlier, this goldman sach index verses the stock market is the furthest stretch, you know, the stocks verses commodities as it gets. and typically the year after that, and not because it's a year in sixes, just because it's stretched that far commodities tend to have a better year. >> tend to have a bettererear. well, let's talal about a commodity y at needs to have a better year, and that's the cattle markets, jim, because

has us a $700 a head, or near $700 a head per animal. that's been a tough market, even for traders lately. >> yes. that market has just been one of the wildest markets i've ever been accustomed to or even been involved i and it's a market to which i'm not really certain what's going to happen out ahead because there's so many variables in there. this last cattle on feed report obviously was interpreted to be friendly, and i think so, but you kind of an aststisk by it because a lot of those inventory may have been out on forage or because the weather's been so warm and mil they didn't go to the feed lot. >> right. we're talking about placements being down 11%. >> right. that placement number really caught everybody off guard. well, let's look behind the scenes. let's look at that a little closer. >> okay. >> so what that market needs is more demand. we've got a lot of inventory of turkey, chicken, pork we're going to have to compete with. we've got a lot of export competition. i still

high. ititwung too low, and entually it will swiwi back to a more normatype trade, but certainly that market has to be analyzed from a risk standpoint. it has a high degree of volatility. the customer must be made aware constantly there's danger here, and i don't know the answer, but i think it should be a little bit better year as we get into next year. >> yeah, tommy, what are you seeing on the cattle side? >> i tataed to a friend of mimi. when we were on the show a few months ago we talked that the cattle were heavy, they were going to cln those up, and they kept coming in. like jim said earlier in the show, these lower prices sometimes feed on themselves. what was wild about cattle is as we went down we actually started to accelerate to the downside, and so we became more volatile as we became lower. now, we know cattle's not going to zero, but there wawaa day or two where i i felt like that, sosoalking to my friend, my customer, he said the weights have been, the heavy, fat cattle have been cleaned up. weights went down a lot this week. the market had a pretty good recovery, but the damage

high for feeders, fed them out, that money's lost. it's not coming back. the cattleman's going to have to be really careful on what price they pay to get in because once they set that p pce no different our friends in the rowowrops. once you bought all the stuff, the only thing left is to grow it and then sell it, and you're stuck with either a profit or a loss. >> yeah, real quick, jim, we talk a little bit about the grain left i istorage. is any of that going to move t ttown? >> well, what we've been doing at bower trading is we've been doing a lot of sell and defend, sell the cash. hopefully on a good basis. i think e basis game is going to be pretty wild all l e way from right now all the way through summer of next year. there is going to be some significant basis play, especially in the eaern corn belt. solay the basis, sell the cash, get yoyo bills paid, pay y e taxes, pay for youou supplies, get things organized and defend it with some type of option strategy or replace it with again upon the@risk talks with that client. >> all right. well, we'll get your final thoughts when we come back in markets

your next piece of equipment at machinerypete.com and enter fo your chance to win a yeti cooler. one yeti tundra 35 cooler is s ing given away each week. go to machinerypete.com/survey, complete the survey and enter your information. you could be the next owner of a machinery pete yeti oler. welcome back for markets nowowwe'll

now, i had the chance to travel the country. i was meetg with a great groupf farmers up in north dakota, and they asked me, whahado you think we're doing wrong in marketing? i said, to be honest with you, and maybe this is going to offend some of you, is that if you ever watch world series of ker, us as fans we git to see what e eryone has in their hands. i said the american farmer, two, three years in a row, three years of lower corn prices at harvest keeps going all in on a pair of threes. >> right. >> i said, and we can see what your hand is. i said as we

going to have to do a better job of understanding what they're being dealt that year and then working within those circumstances. >> okay. jim, what do you think? >> well, there is something going on which bothers me a little bit. i wanted to talk a little bit about it, and it's kind of a psychology of deflationary technology, and i've seen such a change in the ability of the producers, particularly hereren the united states, of being able to produce at such an efficient rate. it's almost like they're too good at their jo and consequently the prices have fallen down to levels which we haven't seen for quite some time. i tend to be offensive oriented. that's played sports, when i ride horses i try to be as offensive oriented as i can, but i think this coming year may be a year where be a little bit more defensively oriented, and then it does need to be changed you change your strategy kind in midstream, but be aware that things are dififrent now from a pricing standpoint than they were not only here in the united states, but globally. it's a

perspective. thank youoth for being here. we'll have john phipip when we come back on u.s. farm report. it may be the off

season for john phipps but he's staying busy...churning out thoughts and opinions for u-s farm report. today in john's world -- his thoughts on recent climate negotiations in paris. eaeaier this month, virtually unnoticed by the ag media, what i think was an historic diplomatic and scientific achievement unfolded in paris. not only was it a hopeful counterpoint to the horrific terrorist attack there, it was a nearly unbelievable negotiating accomplishment. getting 196 nations to agree on the time of day is no surehing. to get them to hammer out a plan to begin tackling climate change

s and most of agricucuure suspect or b bieve climate change is a hoax or swindle, but that is beside the point. the restf us have moved on, and that means almost all the rest of us. there is much to criticize from both sides. the agreed goals are modest at best, and will not get us to less than 2 degrees celsius warming by 2100, but they start us down a betttt path. the idea that the pledges made by nations are voluntary misses the point. in the end, all international agreements depend on good faith. after all even tse upset about the cool sanctions aren't advocating war with canada and mexico. it also needs to be pointed out that the u-s is not the overwhelmingly dominant economic player in the globe as it used to be. w win agriculture haveverown to depend on china's growing economy for our prosperity, and we should be able to put 2 and 2 together and realize that big trading

cannot dictate outcomes anymore. speaking of chine, one of the complaints about climate negotiations that big polluters like china and india don't sign on was addressed in the cop21 agagement. in fact, it can be argued that china's pledges to reduce greenhouse gasses are more ambitious than the u-s targets. but just as we have discovered with trade agreements, perhaps the most important result of this treaty will be more treaties. proving agreements can be reached at all leads cotries to consider diplomacy over coercion as a eaper, more effectivivroute to their national goals. even if you care little about climate change efforts, you will benefit from the boost this treaty has given to global cooperation. perspective solely from the mind of phipps. thanks john. still to come....its our christmas in the country special. and even tyne

country. it's easy to get caught-up in the hustle and

as a gift, of sorts, to o u. it's a way to shsh our thanks to our faithful viewers. and while it's a present short on ribbons and tinsel, it does serve as a reminder to slow-down and embrace the holiday with your family in n way that is characteristic of rural america. christmas trees are a classic symbol of the holidays -a tradition that's been around for ceuries. some tree farmers take steps each christmas season to spread holiday cheer.. not just on the farm but to our friends and family in uniform. national reporter betsy jibben has the story. it's anotr busy season at the whitehouse christmas tree farm in northwest ohio. it's been an exciting season and today has been just a beautiful day." as families continue their tradition of pipiing out the perfect pine, spruce or even fir tree for their homes. "what do you think buddy? like this tree? not every family has the opportunity to spend it together. oftentimes, our men and women in uniform are

and farmer duke wheeler had one holiday.. that sparked his family to do their part...serving those whoerve our country.... by shipping trees to mililary families. we started giving trees to military families since the first gulf war." it was the efforts of wheeler and other farmers around the nation.. that prompted the national christmas tree assocation and fed-ex to help out as well. by creating a national-weekend event during december, called, 'trees for troops.' at participating farms, (or online i tnk) a tree can be purchased and donated.. this year the trees are going to 65 military bases across the country and a handful of bases overseas in afganistan, kuwait and guam. (or for time: this year trees are going to bases around the country and throughout the world. "our assignment is to fill a trailer to go to camp lejeune in north carolina." "a couple more, we need five more trees. good job you two." wheeler is not a veteran himself..too young for vietnam and too old for the first gulf war. but at his far young rotc memebers in uniform lend a helpingngand.. we loaded trtrs, shook them, drilled thema dn bailed them. we'll hop in anywhere that needs to be

never really got a 'thanks' and i love saying thanks to them." and thenenhere were those currently serving stacking and sorting in support of others. being active duty military, you get depoloyed a lot and a lot of times, it's difficult from a financial perspective so it's important to give back to the military communitieis and an this is a great way to do that to make sure families have a good christmas. who better to give it to than someone trying to protect our freedom," "i served at the 5th marine division in ww2 a tt battle of iwo jima." "thanks for comign t. so good to see you." romaker's days of heavy lifting may be past-but standing with his 'family' sees his spirits raised (raises his spirits) think i donate because i want to. they are my brothers."> while the holidays are always a busy time of year those in whitehouse, , io are taking time to remember the seasas of giving. "their sacrifices are nothing compared to giving away a free tree. reporting in whitehouse, ohio, i'm betsy jibben. thanks betsy. whitehouse says while the abundance of rain

was bad news f f row crop farmers, his christmas treeses thrived. his trees in sandier soil are in the best condition he's ever seen. our next stop qn our christmas journey takes us two hours south of the white house tree farm. we're headed to clifton, ohio where an old, historic grist mill is still grinding grain through-out the year. and as joe camoriano shows us, things really "brighten-up" during the christmas season. ( i don't even have enough words to describe it--it's the greatest job that i could ever have. for toni satorioni, owning one of the fefeoperating grist mills in the country means more than a unique business; a local connection he helps foster is everything. consumers want not just products, they want experiences. so whether they are buying flower products or pancake mixes that were milled somewhere locally, visitors who make their way to clifton mill are imdiately drawn to the charming restaurant that sits on the e ge of clifton gorge.e.

just a few feet away. the sausage hails from the local butcher and buffalo is also a local favorite.> there has never been a day out of 16 years that i have ever dreaded coming to work. every year there are several families that will come to me and they will tell me 'wow, i started coming out here when i was a kid and now i am bringing my grandkids out here'. so it just reminds me every day of ho w important it is to keep something this historic still going.> besides the lure of the restaurant, the beautiful view ofofhe mill from the covered bridge there is even a miniature village waiting to take you back to childhood memorieie and not far from t t mini town is a room filled with 3,600 santas that come in all shapes and sizes. but that idefinitely not all people come from every part of

center point of any town, especial in the agricultural community and we like to keep that tradition alive.> one way of keeping that tradition alive i s buying drawing attention to their 210 year old mill and how do they do that? they do it like this.> every night, i get to smile and meet people who say this.> every night, i get to smile and meet people who say 'hey, i've been coming here for years and now our kids come here and our grandkids come here. you are part of our scrapbook and you are part of this and you are part of that' and it's amazing know that you are part of all that with all these different families. > merry christmas!> reporting form clifton, ohio. i

shsh of lights in ohio. . d the pancakes didn't look too bad either! agday brought you by chevy silverado. some of the earliest settlers to this new land learned how to

use cranberries as food and medicine from the native americans. cranberries -in some form -were likely served at the first thanksgivingt plymouth. about 20 miles from there -in wareham, massachusetts -the nation's largest cranberry farm is celebratingng successful season. andrew mccrea has our story. in the early 19th century timbered lowlands of southeastern massachusetts were known for producing iron. log iron as it was known was important to the young nation, by the mid 1800s better iron was found in the west and the

well all the iron mills around here clos up and went out to pennsylvaniaialeft this area open for growing cranberries. > cranberries grew naturally around the swamps, so early farmers knew this would be a good location to begin larger production of the crop. able de make peace was just 22 years old when he began the cranberry farm that still bears his name. now, seven generations later, its 2000 acres make it the largest cranberry farm in the world. > cranberries take a lot of water and a lot of sand, which we have, both of especially in this kikd of area. we are similar to the cape, where we have a lot of natural sands, so in the 1800s you needed the water, you need to have the berries flood at different parts of the day and different times of the year for irrigation for frost and for winter floods.> most farmers want to avoid having their farms get flooded t if you grow cranberries it is an important

of times of year. once to protect them for the winter and then again for the harvest. > you have pbobably seen pictures of a w w cranberry harvest,,where water lifts the berries off the vines and allows them to be gathered and loaded on to pump trucks. however, flooding the bogs is also an important part of wintering the crop.> we keep the water on for like two months. . metimes we will change the water out in between because the vines still have to breathe and as long as they get sunlight and the water can oxidize it is fine. but if you have a lot of ice and snow on top of that then you block the sunlight.> the cranberry vines can produce a bountiful harvest for many years. in fact, some of the vines at make peace farms date to the 19th century we have some early black and howe vines those are two different varieties and theyeyre well over 100 150 years old in some of our bogs but the latest

farmland can be cost prohibiting in massachusetts, so#farmers focus on upgrading thehecres that they alalady have.> so because property is expensive, what they do what we do and most other growers is we go in and will take out some of those older varieties, we will level the bogs o, put in new upgraded irrigation, stuff likeethat and then we wililput in the hybrid.> high population density might squeeze farmland out of similar areas but the market for this crop remains strong. still worth growing cranberries. it is a great market right now. ocean spray has done a great job at marketing and keeping the price up and things lili that. the cranberry industry is still thriving, so we are doing well. > the make peace farm is now in its seventh generation of growing cranberries as the largest grower in the world they certainly provide a staple for many holiday meals. with their focus on sustainability and their community it's a place that brings thousands of

largest grower for ocean spray which is a farmer cooperative that began in 1930. if you do string some cranberries, it's recommended that you dispose of the garland after a day or two, before berries get soft. you can place them outside and allow birds to nibble on them, as long the berries are not coated or treated. next, we're headed to michigan to see a massive christmas tree -the kind of which you've probably never seen before. because it actually sings! and get ready to e one of ameri's castles decked out for the holidays. it's a rare treat you don't want to miss...when christmas in the country continues. there are plenty of christmas

trees in mchigan. but there's one in particular in western

on theouse top reindeer paws, down comes deaole santa claus.... the choir from mona shores high school creates a massive living and singing christmas tree for their)annual holiday concert. this it the 31st year for the creative concert. it stands 67 feet talll-or about five stories. they claim it as the tallest in the country. a steel super-structure is covered with artificial greens and thousands of lights. there are about 200 voices, beltininout classic christmas hymns and jingles. behind all fourteen levels, there are about three dozen parents, called "tree monkeys". they stand behind theerformers in case they beging to feel easy and need to sit down. ininddition to the tallllt singing tree in thth u-s. it's also believed to be the fourth tallest in the world. meanwhile, this tree is even taller -and real. it's the 2015 capitol christmas tree. it came from the chew-goh national forest in alaska. the 74 foot tall lutz spruce is the first capitol christmas tref to come from alaska. it traveled

the capitol christmas tree has been a tradition at the capitol since 1964. the tree will be lit from nightfall until 11 p.m. each eveni through january rst. next we visit a arand estate in north carolina that can rival any mansion in america with its stateliness and attention to christmas trimmings. agday brought to you by basf grow smart with basf a a

get the most acre after acre season after season it's a place where southern history and holiday beauty ce togethern spectacular fashion. the decorations at the biltmore estateten asheville, north carolina include theheork of a floral manager who got her start years ago as a student at the university of tennessee. charles denney from the u-t institute of

capturing christmas past, straight out of george vanderbilt's celebration in the te 1800's, biltmore estate day is stunning. the banquet hall includes a 34 foot tall tree, and decorations from floor to ceiling. but with the santa's and all the trimmings, there's horticultureere too, plants and flowers, 250 poinsettias alone. more than 300thousand people tour biltmore during the holidays. cathy bahardt and her team work to make the experience special, and even pass on decorating ideas. "we feel like that's part of our job here is to inspire our guests. i mean biltmore is all about inspiration so the floral department wants to inspire people in ways to use plants and flowers in their house and also to do those seasonal decorations like christmas." "every public area of the biltmore is decorated, and visitors can see

year 'round with all the planning required to transform this place during the holidays." this is barnhardt's 38th christmas at biltmore. she came here right out of college -graduation from the ut institute of agriculture, where she worked in campus greenhouses. it was her love and expertise in history, art and plan that led her to biltmore. this asheville native has a nearly lifelong connection here, and her creative touch passes on that holiday spirit each season. this is charles denney reporting. ) here's a bit of trivia f f you... on christmasaseve 1895, george vanderbilt officially opened biltmore to friends and family. the biltmore website says the country estate was maelously decorated and full of festivity. the finished home contained over four acres of floor space, including 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65

when we come back, john phipps shares of his treasured christmas memories. find your next peice of equipment at machinerypete dot com welcome back to christmas in the country. well each year, en my family gets out all our decorations and ornaments for the tress i really like discovering those special and unique ornaments that we hold near and deaeato our heart john phipps joins us from his farm to

share his thoughts on the treasures that offer comfort to him and his wife. if you are married to someone born on december 23 whose middle name is noel, you u tter be ready to

married to a former choir director for 30plus years, you'd better be prepared to take christmas music pretty seriously. those two facts essentially explain christmas in the phip household. this year i noticed that the gradual accumulation of beloved christmas decorations had claimed all the horizontal surfaces, hangable lations, and idle floor space in the house. i'm not complaining i love all the memories these keepsakes trigger. we have swedish decorations from jan's family traditions. we have handmade decorations from woodworking friends, a special christmas book collection for calming grandchildren and about 6 trips up and down n airs worth of othereroliday momentous thaha after the decades, have acquired their own spific location. in

test of our memories. and should we misplace one, it will not go unnoticed by our knee-high protocol enforcers. meanwhile, in the background is playing my latest mix of all kinds of christmas music. from traditional carols to classical choral works to new age renditions and some that defy choral works to new age renditions and some that defy

both the nostalgia and the promise of christmas, we realize that our christmas habits and rituals are just that -ours. we try not to make the mistake of insisting that they be replicated in succeeding generations. while we would be happy if they find, as we have, a hand-me-down tradition to cherish in their evolving christmas customs, our greater hope is they accumulate their own sustaining patterns of celebration. chrisymas has always been and should continue to be a do-it-yourself holiday. in fact, it is this process of making christmas special in your own way that can make it a rare repeatable joy. here's wishing you your very own unique merry christmas. ) a unique perspective from john phipps.

christmas with us. may your christmas be a timimof flection, peace and hope in a new season... the promise of a new year and a life lived abundantly. thank you for sharing your bounty with us and helping to feed and cloth people across the world. let your hard work and sacrifice be an example for all that see. from our family to yours. thank you and merry christmas. high strength steel for high strength dependability, the chevy silverado is the official ws

gun shots broke the silence on christmas night in waterloo. we have the latest on the investigation.