We’re in the final stretch as snow blankets the roads leading to December. Such was the story of this year’s Julefest celebration which fizzled out almost as quickly as it began following the forecasted snowstorm. Many of Friday’s festivities were cut short, and a Snow Emergency shut down the rest of the weekend for Main St. businesses. Although the weekend was largely a disappointment for all involved, the mill faired okay. It wasn’t pretty, but we worked well with the traffic we got to finish out the month.

The end of the year is always a large gamble for the mill. We invest the bulk of any revenue we can generate during the travel season into inventory that we hope to sell during November and December, two months that can account for 30-40% of our annual revenue. As a result, snow and closures can hurt us significantly during this time of year, as we depend on events that simply cannot be rescheduled to ensure we make it to the end of the year.

And so we are hoping for the best as we turn our attention to Christkindlmarket Des Moines which will be held over two weekends this year for the first time. We will be there in our usual hut sponsored by the Rasmussen Group, and we’ve heard the Museum of Danish America will have volunteers at the festival as well. These next two weeks can make or break our year, and our staff will be out in the cold winds of Downtown Des Moines to make the most of this opportunity. We also wish to thank Nicole Butler and Jon Adams for volunteering to help with the festival this year.

Preparing for the festival is always a challenge. We have a 20' rental truck in the parking lot to help us move a large chunk of our gift shop to Des Moines so we can built out our space. I have no doubt we will completely fill it before we get there. It looks like we will be in for a cold first week with some potential for snow, so we are taking the precautions we can to ensure things don’t freeze which is always an issue for the 20+ cases of glogg we bring with us.

On the homefront, Phyllis, Joanne, and Joni will continue to run the store while we are gone. We’re sure many of our usual Julefest visitors will be making their annual pilgrimages to Elk Horn on either of these weekends. We hope you will find time to stop in and tour the mill or do a little holiday shopping with us.

Work on the preservation center is at a halt for the moment until we get through the holidays, but the building is at least sealed up for winter. We have electric, but are still waiting on heat and water. Water, of course, has been a sore topic around here the last few weeks, but at least the snow has made our parking lot no longer look like a stockyard with all of the digging in every direction. We do wish to thank Jacob Henry, Elk Horn’s new public works director, for his dedication to resolving our recent water issues as quickly as possible.

And finally, it is no secret that death has had an extended stay in our community recently. We wish to honor those who have passed in recent days, some of whom were vital parts of our organization in different ways: Annette Andersen, Lavon Andersen, Rosa Clemson, Verdell Hansen, Doris Jones, Bev Larsen, Howard Sorensen, and Eileen Sornson.

Keep your loved ones close this holiday season, and have a Merry Christmas from all of us at the Danish Windmill.