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CONTENTS
Santa going broke?.......4 Take care to avoid making Mr. Claus fall into financial trouble.
At home8
Holiday @ home......10
Find a few tricks to bring Christmas fun to your house this season.
Riedels love their wide open space.
Das Haus is published and distributed by The Hays Daily News, 507 Main, Hays, KS 67601. Find it online at www.HDNews.net/DasHaus. Copyright Š 2014 Harris Enterprises. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Das Haus is a registered trademark of The Hays Daily News. Printed by Northwestern Printers, 114 W. Ninth, Hays, KS 67601, northwesternprinters.com. Publisher, Patrick Lowry, plowry@dailynews.net Advertising Director, Mary Karst, maryk_ads@dailynews.net Designer, Nick Schwien, nschwien@dailynews.net Account Executives: Joleen Fisher, Ashley Bergman, Eric Rathke Creative Services: Juno Ogle, Mallory Anderson
Christmas craze.......12 Opening of Hobby Lobby in Hays brings new route for those looking to decorate year round.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT Linda Beech is a family and consumer science agent with K-State Research and Extension in Ellis County.
Santa goes BROKE? Plan ahead to keep Mr. Claus out of debt
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4 DAS HAUS December 2014/January 2015
very year, thousands of Americans find themselves in financial trouble after the holidays because Santa and his elves spent a little too much. According to Consumer Reports research released in late 2012, half of holiday shoppers charged gift purchases on a credit card, and 13 percent were still paying off the credit card debt a year later. Don’t let the financial costs of your holiday celebrations dampen your spirits in the new year. Planning ahead can help keep Santa out of debt. Here are a few strategies to consider: 1. Make a list, check it twice. Start the holiday season by making a list of all the things you are likely to spend money on. This will certainly include Christmas gifts, but think also about holiday extras such as gift wrap, decorations, greeting cards, postage, extra groceries for holiday meals and holiday baking, eating out, extra child care and gasoline for shopping trips and holiday travel.
Don’t forget to add in regular expenses which also occur this time of year, such as property taxes, charitable contributions, winter car maintenance, car tags (for those at the end of the alphabet), insurance and other yearend costs. 2. Plan a holiday budget. Compare your list to the amount of money you have available to spend at this time of year. The key is to create a budget — a spending plan that will help you cover your seasonal expenses — and stick to it. Financial experts say you’re less likely to overspend your budget if you pay in cash. One way to manage holiday spending is to have a specific amount of holiday cash on hand and resolve not to withdraw more when it is gone. If you prefer a more secure option than carrying a lot of cash, consider a separate checking account or dedicated debit account for only your holiday money. Then you won’t inadvertently dip into household funds for holiday spending. 3. Avoid excess credit card debt. With a growing list of holiday expenses, more consumers might be tempted to turn to credit cards to manage the costs. But excess debt can certainly dampen the holiday spirit when the bills start arriving. One strategy to limit credit card debt is to use only one credit card for holiday spending and keep an accurate, up-to-date spending log. After each charge purchase, or at the end of each shopping day, write down the amount purchased on that card and keep a running total. Don’t wait for your credit card statement to discover what you’ve spent. Keeping track as you go will help you stick to your holiday budget. Charge only what you can pay for in full at the end of the month, or plan to pay off a remaining balance as quickly as possible. Making only the minimum payment on a credit card balance can increase the cost — and the pay-off period — tremendously. 4. Save ahead for next year. Keep track of your holiday expenses this year so you know the total cost of your holiday spending. Divide the total by 12 to determine the amount to set aside monthly throughout the
coming year so your holiday funds will be saved in advance next year. (If the monthly amount seems more than you can afford to save each month, consider that you can’t afford the monthly debt payments afterward — because they come with interest.) You might want to put your holiday savings into a Christmas Club account or a separate savings account. It’s even easier to save if you make the saving automatic. Arrange for an
automatic transfer at your financial institution each pay period. If you don’t see those holiday savings, you won’t be tempted to spend them during the year. Finally, to put holiday spending into perspective, focus on the real reason for the Christmas season and look for non-material ways to celebrate and share with others. This will help to make the holidays more meaningful for everyone.
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Darran Riedel and his wife, Lori, have a house they have always dreamed of.
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6 DAS HAUS December 2014/January 2015
SPA
hile growing up on a farm in northwest Kansas, Darran Riedel lived in a singlewide mobile home and had two goals in mind upon leaving home for college. Riedel, who shared a bedroom with two older brothers, wanted to own a farm of his own someday, and he vowed he would live in a much larger home when he raised a family of his own. Now in his 40s, Riedel has accomplished both missions — in a big way. Although not a farmer, Riedel still works the land as owner of Riedel’s Garden Center, which serves Hays and the surrounding region. And he and his wife, Lori, raised their three children in a spacious two-story home on 5.7 acres of land just outside Hays’ city limits. The six-bedroom, five-bath home is the backdrop for the property, which is entirely surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. The spread includes a large pond, meticulously manicured grass and shrubbery in both the front and backyards and a large detached garage/shed that can hold six vehicles. “Maybe it’s a farm thing,” Riedel said of the separate building he wanted in addition to the home’s two-vehicle attached garage. “You can’t ever have
E OPEN photos by jolie green story by diane gasper-o’brien
ACES enough garages.” While that detached garage — which includes heat, two portable basketball goals and a 30-foot high ceiling — is a young basketball player’s dream, the house is as homey as a small bungalow. Even before entering the front door, one can view through the windows a huge wooden curved staircase shipped in from Cleveland, where it was handbuilt by Mennonites. The staircase, accented by an overhead chandelier, takes up a lot of floor space, but that didn’t bother the Riedels. Once they found the floor plan they liked, they modified it.
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“We loved the plan, loved the look, but it had a lot of rooms,” Riedel said. “So we opened it up quite a bit.” The open theme is spread throughout. A large round Macassar Ebony table just to the left of the main entryway sets off the formal dining area. But most of the family meals are served at a long eight-seat table that overlooks the patio and backyard surrounded by multi-tiered limestone landscaping filled with shrubs and surrounded by pine trees. All can be seen through large windows throughout the home. “That’s what I like about being out here,” Lori Riedel said. “You can look out see the yard; it’s so peaceful. Through every window, you can see nature.” There is additional seating at a marble-topped bar that stretches down the center of the kitchen, which Lori Riedel says is her favorite room. “I just really like the way family and friends gather in the kitchen,” she said. Just off the kitchen is a comfy sitting area with a fireplace, several cushion chairs and a TV. The limestone used for the landscaping, as well as for portions of the house siding, came from a quarry near St. Marys in northeast Kansas. At the top of the stairs, one can go either right or left to bedrooms — each of their three children have their own bedroom — and a balcony overlooks the entire downstairs, where the master bedroom features
a large open bathroom with a separate tub and shower. After working on his family farm near WaKeeney as a youngster, Riedel came to Fort Hays State University with the ideas of returning to the family farm after earning a degree in agriculture business. He found a part-time job working for Lessman Garden Center, and he neither got that degree nor went back to the farm. By the time Riedel was a sophomore in college, he was taking on more and more responsibility of Lessman’s business and was named manager of the garden center. By the end of Riedel’s sophomore year, Lessman was looking for a buyer. So Riedel became a full-time landscape artist, and he never made it back to the family farm. Both decisions have paid off for Riedel and his family. Drought conditions and lack of water in the Hays area in the late 1980s made xeriscaping an easy sell. “We started selling hundreds of semi loads of rock,” he said. “Instead of grass, we were putting in drip irrigation systems and shrubs and rocks and mulch.” Riedel went from two landscaping employees to 15, and he said the work ethic he learned working on a farm has served him well. By the early 2000s, the Riedels began planning for a new home on the outskirts of town in the Stonewood Estates development. “Darran wanted to be in the country, and I was used to being in town,” said Lori Riedel, who grew up in Dodge City and met her future husband while attending Fort Hays. “It’s the perfect compromise. We’re out away from the city, but I like it that we still have neighbors.” The Riedels visited various rock quarries for limestone for landscaping and house siding. They found the staircase on the Internet, and it has served ever since as the centerpiece of their home, which also became the place to go for their children’s friends. “Homecoming, prom, all those school celebrations, a lot of those
all those years started out at our house,” Riedel said. “There have been hundreds of pictures taken of kids lined up on that staircase,” he added. The Riedels’ home even has been the site of two weddings. “I want my family and friends to enjoy (the results of) my hard work,” Riedel said. The Riedels’ two oldest children, Blake and Brock, are away at college in Lawrence, but their youngest son,12-year-old Blayne, still makes full use of all the space. “It’s a livable house, and that’s how they use it,” Riedel said as he
picked up a soccer ball and a football from the floor of the basement rec room that includes a bar, an air hockey table and ping-pong table and a large entertainment center with a large flatscreen TV. “We have a fourwheeler, and you can walk out the front door and fish and swim,” Riedel said of the pond that also serves as irrigation water for their property. “We love having family and friends out,” Lori Riedel said. “It’s nice and big, plenty of room for the kids to run around.” “A lot of great memories out here,” her husband agreed.
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Berry Berry Quite Contrary Kayla Berry is a stay-at-home mom who enjoys creating, decorating and re-purposing old furniture and decor.
Holiday @ home C hristmas is one of my most favorite times of the year. Christmas trees lit up in windows, stockings hung on mantels, Christmas cards adorning the refrigerator door, presents wrapped under the Christmas tree, and cookies and candies line the counter-top. People in general seem to be a lot more cheerful; and most importantly it’s a time to remember the reason for the season. Decorating, baking and wrapping presents are my favorite parts of the season. Here are a couple fun, easy projects to do in honor of the season.
10 DAS HAUS December 2014/January 2015
Snow paint During the colder months, I am always looking for fun projects to do with my kids since we are cooped up inside. This is an easy, cheap project to do with them that they will love. What you’ll need: • Shaving cream. • Elmer’s glue. • Silver glitter. • Colored construction paper. • Paint brushes. The night before you are going to make your snow paint, put your shaving cream and glue in the refrigerator. This will make your snow paint really cold and
your kids will love it’s as cold as snow. Mix equal parts of shaving cream and glue in a bowl and put a bunch of silver glitter on top. Then let your kids go to town painting away. The paint will dry puffy. You can keep the extra paint in your refrigerator for a couple days. This is an awesome project to do with kids. It is mess free, unlike regular paint and an added bonus: it smells really good, too. May you all have a blessed and magical Christmas. Snow jars These snow jars are a cinch to make and create an adorable Christmas decoration. What you’ll need: • Twp glass jars with lids. • Small Christmas Village decor (little snowmen, small trees, people, houses, etc.). • Fake snow • Lights. Put your lights in the bottom of your jar and fill up your jar about a third of the way with your fake snow. Situate your decor on top of the snow. Create whatever scene you like and put your lid back on. Plug your lights in or use battery operated ones and you have a magical,
glowing scene in a jar. This is a great project for kids to help with as well. For more Christmas ideas, go to my blog: berryberryquitecontrary.wordpress.com.
Christmas Decorating Addition of Hobby Lobby to Hays adds Christmas decorating twist all year.
JOLIE GREEN • Hays Daily News
Bekka Simpson, Hays, looks at Christmas trees with her son, Skyler, 18 months, and her daughter, Summer, 3, in early November at Hobby Lobby in Hays.
Christmas craze By DIANE GASPER-0’BRIEN dobrien@dailynews.net hat’s a perfect Summer tree, don’t you think?” a mother of two young children asked her daughter while out shopping one November morning. Bekka Simpson wasn’t talking about the season — her daughter’s name is Summer — but she just as easily could have been. With the opening of a Hobby Lobby retail arts and crafts store in Hays this summer, customers in the surrounding area have been able to purchase early Christmas ornaments and get gift-making ideas since July. Hobby Lobby stores traditionally have made a space for ornaments and other Christmas merchandise nearly
“T
12 DAS HAUS December 2014/January 2015
six months before the holiday. “We have a lot of people come in here who craft,” said Darret Hazlett, manager of the Hays store. “So we need to have things in here early so they can get started before Christmas.” This year, Simpson decided to give her daughter, who will turn 4 in January, her own miniature tree to set up in her bedroom. So she knew right where she wanted to go to help Summer choose her tree. “I’m so used to having a Hobby Lobby to go to,” said Simpson, who grew up in Kearney, Neb., and came to Hays after high school to attend Fort Hays State University. “I would always go (to Hobby Lobby) when I’d go back to visit my parents, so I was excited when I heard we were getting one in Hays.” There were plenty of trees from which to choose — for the time being, anyway. Hazlett said he has had to order in more product from other Hobby
Lobby stores, he said, because “we’re a little above production, and we didn’t have enough Christmas merchandise bought. It’s gone really fast, faster than we thought.” Hazlett, who worked in a store in
Nebraska before taking over the Hays store, said he has been overwhelmed with the amount of people who have shopped his store in four months time.
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Bekka Simpson helps her daughter, Summer, measure how tall she is compared to a tabletop Christmas tree. “I never really thought of it, but a lot of people come here to the hospital,” he said of Hays Medical Center, “and they shop while they’re here. The response has been amazing.” Hazlett said of the four new Hobby Lobby stores that opened across the country the last weekend of June, Hays’ turned in the most sales. And the newness hasn’t worn off as customers from all across the region continue to check out the Hays store. “I tell my employees that while we’ve been here four months, this is new for a lot of people,” he said. “It’s like a grand opening for them when they come in.” “It’s been a long time in the making,” he added, “and I think it was the right time, right place.” That suits Simpson, and a whole lot of other customers, just fine. “This way, I can put things on our (family) tree like I want,” Simpson said as she helped Summer choose her own personal tree, “and she can put her ornaments on hers however she wants, too.”
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