A Green Christmas

Legendary jazz musician Dave Brubeck takes the stage Saturday at Showcase Live at Patriot Place Saturday, Dec. 6, his 88th birthday.

The PAC Family Players brings singing, dancing and humor to holiday production at the Civic League this weekend.

Video: Check out rehearsals

There's a good reason so many people resort to cookie swap parties.

These simple cutout cookies are just the start. Use whatever holiday cookie cutters you have and decorate with gusto. Most baking and craft supply stores sell numerous candy decorations and ready-made icings.

KITCHEN DETECTIVE

Each holiday season, I offer a roundup of our favorite kitchen tools and gadgets that are, if not utterly practical, at least likely to make cooking a bit more fun.

THE BEER NUT

I rarely buy 12-packs of beer. No matter how good the beer is, after I drink three or four the rest just sit there gathering dust. There are too many good beers out there to settle on a dozen of any one kind.

In this section, you'll find a list of entries teasing to all of our blogs. Below the tease is the link to the actual blog, which is hosted on WordPress. Please click on that link. If you click on the headline, it just brings you to the tease again. Also, please note that the "posted dates" you see in the tease are when the tease was posted...NOT when the blog was last updated. Most blogs are updated daily, or at least a few times a week. Find a few blogs that you like, bookmark them and come back often!

By day, Kat Powers spends most of her hours consumed with the ins and out of Somerville, as she is the editor of the Somerville Journal. But when the work day is done, she calls Natick home. Here, she blogs about all things Natick and encourages you to join in the conversation.  Be sure to bookmark  the blog and return often!

Click here to read the Natick Blog

With all the talk in recent weeks about the surprising choices that President-elect Barack Obama has made in terms of people who will probably work for him, one question has come to my mind: If Hillary, why not me? Or you? Why shouldn't we be part of the Obama Administration if we want to be?

Inside every recession there's a silver lining and in this one it's falling oil prices, down from $147 a barrel in July to $48 this week and maybe headed toward $40.

The Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone and it is now time to reflect upon the love and generosity of so many friends and volunteers. Our 19th annual "Curtis Family Thanksgiving Feed" was a smashing success. Our numbers this year were very impressive - over 1200 hot turkey dinners, with all the trimmings, were served.

As I sat in the stands at Bowditch Field last Thursday watching the annual Natick - Framingham football game it occurred to me that someone, or something, was missing. The Natick Blue & Red, or Red & Blue, or Black & Blue, or whatever they are called now, certainly played their hearts out, but something was missing. What could it be? The same outstanding head coach was on the sidelines as when I played football for Natick. The players looked the same size, best as I could recall. And the weather was typical of most Thanksgiving Days.

With a handshake agreement in place and paperwork awaiting his signature, Hopkinton Fire Chief Gary Daugherty said yesterday he will accept an offer to lead Framingham's Fire Department.

One person's trash is another's treasure, but either way you look at it, someone benefits. At a pair of Millis thrift shops, the list of beneficiaries is as long and diverse as those who've come together to make the shops a success: nuns and felons, business owners and retirees, bankers and local residents cleaning out their closets, volunteers and folks down on their luck.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone will challenge a Massachusetts Appeals Court decision last month, backing a judge who overturned a child enticement conviction against a local man.

A roundup from MetroWest

The Ashland K-12 PTO is hosting a meet-and-greet with the district's new assistant superintendent, Ann Marie Dargon, next Wednesday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m.

Calendar listings through Dec. 31