Words for some carols will be available, but feel free to bring favorites to share. Cookies and hot chocolate will be served afterward.

If it rains, there will still be caroling in Bob, Dawn, and Beebe's living room.
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Christmas Eve Luminaria
Trim your wicks and join us on the 24th, to help us set up the paper bags for the 6th Holly Street Luminaria Display. Set-up starts at 6:30 p.m., and the display continues until the candles burn out, usually around 1 a.m.

PLEASE MOVE YOUR CARS OFF HOLLY STREET FOR THIS EVENT. The candles glow so beautifully when you can walk down the middle of the street and see them from both sides.

Snacks and hot drinks will be served in front of the Holler office at 1515 Holly. Bring a dessert to share.
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Call in the Starship Troopers!
by Nico Martinucci
Features Editor
At one deceivingly peaceful-looking residence, Asa and Karen are having an ant invasion. Asa said the ants arrived right after it started raining. He thinks the ants are coming inside because it is cold and wet outside. Sometimes they find food, like crumbs, around the house. The ants are coming in from many places: a light socket, from little holes in the wall, and under the back door.

In the past, Asa and Karen used cinnamon. The ants don't like it, but it doesn't stop them. Then they switched to boric acid, but it still didn't work.

"We had to resort to Petrochemical Death," says Karen.

So Asa and Karen bought "White Ant Chalk" from Chinatown. People claim it is safe, but no one knows what's in it. It's illegal the way it's being sold because there are no ingredients listed on the container. Asa is going to send a sample to a friend in the E.P.A. for testing.

But Karen says, "And it works! It works instantly!"
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Sky Note
On December 23, if the weather is clear, Holly Street residents will get a great sky show. Venus (the brightest object in the western sky after sunset) and Mars will appear very close together. They will set that evening a minute apart, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac: Venus at 7:24 p.m. PST, and Mars at 7:25 p.m.
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In Other News ... Cats. Yes, Cats.
[A report from Lower Holly correspondent Christine Hardy]

The neighborhood cats like to hang out in my backyard. I don't quite know why. Maybe they feel safe there or maybe they just know I'm a cat lover. At any rate, I looked out the window one morning, and this is what I saw...

One cat, two cats, three!
Gulliver, Storm and Willie.
My neighbors are visiting me.
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Cruising

[From Upper Holly correspondents Grandpa Jim and Helen]
Our news is that we just came back from a cruise on a big ship that went to the Cayman Islands (still a part of Great Britain), the island of Cozumel off Mexico's Yucatan Coast, and to Santo Tomas de Castillo on the east coast of Guatemala. While in Guatemala, we visited a Mayan archaeological site and a banana processing plant. Next time you eat a Chiquita banana, it might be one that we saw being packed. At a gift shop near the banana plantation we bought some souvenirs for the children in Mrs. Fong's second grade class at Jefferson school, where we both help out in the classroom.
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The Tree Choppers,
Or Why Bob and Dawn Axed
Their Lawson Cypresses
This species does not do well in the Bay Area. They are susceptible to a canker that causes them to die. Bob and Dawn's trees were already infected, and very soon they would have begun turning brown. Rick, the proprietor of our neighborhood tree removal company, The Forestree Company, says he takes these trees out all the time. His advice: They are pretty and they grow fast, but if you plant them, you'll be sorry!
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Holiday Humor
What does Santa Claus like to do in his garden?

He likes to hoe, hoe, hoe.
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Organic Gardener
Harvests Degree
by Tom Brekke
News Editor
Is there a doctor of philosophy in environmental health sciences in the house? There is if the house is Asa's. He recently submitted his dissertation entitled "Young Children's Exposures to Toxic Substances."

Asa has been studying the effects of exposure to Malathion, pesticide accumulation in house dust, and lead in children.

He became interested in this subject after he learned that poisons have a greater effect on children because of their smaller size and growing bodies. Two people Asa worked with at the state Department of Public Health, in the environmental health investigations branch, introduced him to this subject.

Asa said the hardest part of his dissertation was choosing a topic and getting funding. He eventually got a scholarship and two fellowships to help pay for his studies.

Asa has been in school for 24 years, beginning with elementary and high school in Marin County, and completing his B.S., M.S. and now his Ph.D. at UC-Berkeley.

Asa is currently working on a five-year grant to study pesticide exposure in the children of farm workers. He looks forward to taking a break from work sometime in January or February.
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Holly History
by Marie Teixeira (whose mother, also named Marie, grew up on this street, in the same house)
Among the treasures in my grandparents house is a roster of the 196 voters in Berkeley Precinct No. 78 for 1922. I have listed below the voters on Buena and Holly Streets. My mother remembers several of them. I met Mrs. Janson when I was quite young, and Miss Seaton lived on Holly Street into the 1970s.

This roster is only a few years after women won the right to vote, and already many of them in this area had registered. Republicans predominate. In addition to the Democrats, there are a couple of Socialists and Progressives. Some voters registered as non-partisan or just declined to state. Holly Street had one of the precincts two Prohibition party members.

1409: Mrs. Hattie M. Myer, housewife (Rep)
1409: Helen M. and Arthur Craig, housewife and engineer (Rep/Rep)
1410: .Essie M. and William S. Hanford, housewife and retired (Rep/Rep)
1411: Herman A. Weirick, expressman (Rep). He built this house and, later, 1517 Holly.
1411: Roy C. Graham, baggageman (Dem)
1414: Edythe S. and Harold C. Fassett, housewife and salesman (Rep/Rep)
1418: Frank C. Barthen, musician (Rep)
1430: Genevieve and Pedro Saiz, housewife and railroad (Rep/Rep)
1500: Ed C. Jorgensen, shipping clerk
1512: Stuart Phillips Seaton, student (Rep)
Mrs. Alice Seaton, housewife (Rep)
Miss Dorothy Seaton, teacher (Dem)
1515: Mrs. Evelyn and Otto Janson, housewife and manufacturer (Rep/Rep)
1520: Annie A. and George T. Murray, housewife and vulcanizer (Dem/declines)
1520: Mrs. Kate Baldes, clerk (Dem)
1521: Ethel and Roy O. Lind, housewife and factory superintendent (Rep/ declines)
1529: Mark Medeiros, chauffeur (Rep)
1595: Bessie A. and Arthur Southall, housewife and conductor (Dem/Dem)

Neighbors:
Mrs. Ettoiwill Conan, nw Sacramento and Cedar, housewife (Rep)
1533 Buena: Elmer K. Ross, salesman (Rep)
1518 Buena: Anna and Henry R. Ulsh, housewife and farmer (Prohi/Rep)

My two baby cousins, Isabella and Chloe, are coming for the holidays. Chloe is a tiny baby and Isabella is a bigger baby. They are both very fat, but I can pick them up. I like to tickle Isabella, because I like to hear her laugh. I need to hide some of my toys when they are here. We're all going to visit my Grammy. I hope you have a chance to meet Isabella and Chloe.

One day Barbie, her next door neighbor Amanda, her friend Kelly, and her mom and dad, went to see Santa Claus. Kelly didn't want to sit on Santa's lap, but Amanda did. Amanda told him that she wanted a teddy bear for Christmas. She also asked for a teddy bear for Kelly.

They went to sleep, and Santa came and put presents all around the tree. Kelly's mom and dad got picture frames for Christmas, and the next-door neighbors (the mom and dad) got a mirror and a camera. Kelly got a book and a balloon from Santa's wife.

One night a little girl had the strangest, most unusual dream. It was strange because she met unusual people. The first part of her dream she had gone into a wardrobe. When she went into the wardrobe, it was the season of fall. There were the most unusual shapes in the distance. She saw a flying eagle. The eagle was actually a griffin. The griffin wasn't that nice, but he was mean. Then she saw someone planting beans. The person was not an ordinary person like her. It was a bean, planting beans! She watched the bean for a while, then she went on and met a team of bananas. The bananas were tossing bananas everywhere. She was very confused. Then she kept on going and came to a restaurant that looked like a rocket ship. She ate some beans and peas, and she ate all the food she liked. Best of all, she had Turkish Delight! After that, the season changed to winter. She was very cold, so she went to the movies. She sat down in her seat. While she was sitting, she thought about all the other things that she would explore. She was very curious about this unusual place. Suddenly, she saw someone beat someone else up, right in the movie theatre, and she decided to leave. She was stuffed from her meal, like a stuffed bear. Then she thought about her own home. She felt lonely. The only thing she wanted in that strange place was a friend. Then she saw a woman come by her side. It was actually her mother. Next, she saw her father and her sister. They brought her home, and she went to bed.