Sonji Morton Cofield saw the most beautiful thing in her back yard on Christmas night.

Looking from her Hunterdale home, she spotted two albino deer with a brown doe.

“I was so amazed,” Sonji said. “I quietly went outside to snap pictures, but neither of them were clear enough for me to print. I never thought I would ever see just one, but to see two at once! What a miracle and a moment I will never forget. This was the best Christmas gift ever!”

 

n Now for another Christmas story. Joyce Parham of Capron dressed up her 14-year-old cat in a Santa suit that was intended for her daughter’s dog.

“I had hoped to put it on a Jack Russell, but he wouldn’t have it, so we put it on the cat,” Joyce said. “I thought it looked cute and he just sat right there and didn’t even move.”

Joyce’s daughter, Tracy Parham, found the cat when it was about a month old along Highway 35. They named the cat “35.”

A lifelong cat person, Joyce, 75, has a few more indoor cats, including Smutty, who’s the color of soot, and Socks, who has four white feet. Joyce also has 11 outdoor cats.

 

n An exhibit commemorating the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts will open Friday, Jan. 6, and run through the month at the Suffolk Art Gallery & Museum.

The exhibit, “Girl Scouts. Forever Green,” also marks the start of the annual Girl Scout cookie season.

“The exhibit will help launch the Girl Scout Anniversary Year,” said Tracy Keller, chief executive officer for the Girl Scout Council of Colonial Coast, which serves nearly 22,000 in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.

“We will be celebrating throughout 2012 with special events, including exhibits and a birthday community service project,” she continued.

The exhibit will include artifacts, uniforms and handbooks. Visitors will see a glimpse of the organization’s past and information about current programs. Among the artifacts is a Girl Scout cookie tin from the 1930s, a cookie box from the 1940s and other cookie memorabilia.

Of special note is a letter written by Juliette Low and art created by the “Great Brown Owl,” Edith Price. Price is well known for starting the Girl Scout Brownie program and creating the art that appears in the early handbooks.

Low organized the first Girl Scout meeting on March 12, 1912, in Savannah. Three years later, Virginia’s first troop met in Norfolk. Today, there are 3.2 million girl and adult members in Girl Scouts.

The museum at 118 Bosley Ave. is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5p.m.Sunday.