If I were a holiday, I wouldn't want to be Thanksgiving, sandwiched between Halloween - the prelude to festivities - and New Year's Eve, the grand finale to it all. Christmas has the starring role, naturally, and as soon as the curtain opens on November, Christmas preparation is the only act in town. ...more

November 25, 2009

Metropolitan Ministries will begin distributing the fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner to the area's needy families Monday. ...more

November 21, 2009

There is a change in pickup for yard waste, C and D waste, and appliances for Avon Park residents. ...more

November 8, 2009

There is a change in pickup for yard waste, C and D waste, and appliances for Avon Park residents. ...more

October 30, 2009

No one needs to tell Jacquie Petet the economy is bad. She sees it on the faces of her clients who walk through the doors of Christian Social Services of Lutz & Land O' Lakes looking for help with food, clothing and other necessities. ...more

November 19, 2008

Ted Stevens, a pillar of the Senate for 40 years and the face of Alaska politics almost since statehood, was convicted of a seven-felony string of corruption charges Monday - found guilty of accepting a bonanza of home renovations and fancy trimmings from an oil executive and then lying about it. ...more

October 28, 2008

Watching her daughter's excitement mount as last Dec. 25 drew closer, Angela Vera of Brandon wished she could simply flip the page of the calendar over to January so she wouldn't have to deal with Christmas. ...more

October 1, 2008

These families are cooking now. Parents and children recently learned healthy cooking alternatives by cooking a meal as part of a class in the Fit4All Kids program put on by the James P. Gills Family YMCA and All Children's Hospital. ...more

August 13, 2008

I itch. As I write this, I am trying mightily to keep from removing my fingers from the keyboard and raking them across the ugly, raised red patch on my shin. Or the one ringing my wrist. Or the one spread across my forearm. Or the one slightly north of my pinkie toe. Or the one shaped like a chain of Caribbean islands two inches from my belly button. ...more

July 27, 2008

When I was a child, Christmas at our house revolved around the tree. It wasn't Christmas until the tree went up, and the holidays were not over till the tree came down. In that respect, not much has changed; the tree is still the focal point of our holiday trimmings. But these days it fights for attention with one other decoration that is slowly taking over the spotlight, and my living room – my Dickens Village. What started in 1995 with just one little ceramic house, The Old Curiosity Shop, has grown into an entire Victorian town. The display now has 12 buildings, including some with moving parts. All of them are lighted and one even plays music. The village also has 10 trees, a road, a bridge, and a town square complete with mailbox, stone fences and a dozen different sets of tiny Victorian people doing everything from selling newspapers to lighting the street lamps and peeking in windows. My village grows every year, because friends and family are continually buying new pieces for it. They know that village "stuff" is a gift I'll always love. ...more

December 30, 2007