What are the ramifications of having 13 extra people coming into your house over the holidays, all of whom expect to do a lot of sledding on the Girl Scout Hill or playing in the snow-shrouded playground in the park across the street? One answer is “boots!” Lots of ‘em.

If we ever questioned whether Mother Nature can be fickle about how she treats those on the path around the Falls, that should have been cleared up this week. On Jan. 8 the F-150’s digital reading of outside temperature briefly flirted with minus 24 F. Monday at midday was 37 F, a swing of 61 degrees. For people who have experienced a number of Wisconsin winters, that doesn’t seem too unusual.

Students from Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois will square off in a first-time event, the Northeast Wisconsin VEX Robotics Challenge, Saturday at Oconto Falls High School. Forty teams will compete from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. using robots created from the VEX Robotics Design System. Participants will compete in the game Toss Up, developed by VEX Robotics Inc.

Opera for the Young is coming to Suring and Gillett. The company will present an adaptation of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” on Tuesday, Jan. 21. The Suring performance will be at 9:30 a.m. in the Suring Elementary gym, and the Gillett performance will be at 1:30 p.m.

Gillett girls top Lena by 18 points The Gillett Secondary School girls basketball team beat Lena 42-24 in a Marinette and Oconto Conference game Friday in Lena. Kara Brennan led Gillett (3-6, 3-2 M&O) with 12 points. Melissa Bushmaker scored 11 points to lead Lena (4-4, 3-3 M&O). Suring girls defeat STAA The Suring High School girls basketball team got a 58-25 victory over Marinette St.

Riley Gruetzmacher’s double-double wasn’t enough to hold off Bay Conference-leading Shawano Thursday in Oconto Falls. The Panthers (1-6, 1-3 Bay) lost 42-33. Gruetzmacher scored 11 points and had 10 rebounds for Oconto Falls.

McKenna Larsen and Carly Lemke scored 18 points each and the Oconto Falls girls basketball team beat Shawano 47-28 in a Bay Conference game Friday in Shawano. Lemke, a 6-foot-1 senior forward, tallied 14 first-half points, mostly under the basket, for Oconto Falls (6-0, 3-0 Bay). “Offensively, we kind of felt she had the hot hand,” Oconto Falls coach Mike Kaczmarek Jr. said.

Bret Ash and Dewey Krueger won championships and Oconto Falls High School took third at the 15-team Brawl in the Falls wrestling tournament Saturday in Oconto Falls. Kaukauna (200.5) won the tournament, followed by Reedsville (178) and Oconto Falls (172.5). After winning the tournament four years in a row, Oconto Falls has not won the tournament the last two years.

Shawano Police Department Jan.