Slow and steady. Be safe.

Years ago I had a friend, culturally but not religiously Jewish, who devised a third greeting: “Happy Hanukwanzamas!” I was there the day he worked it out on a piece of paper, fitting the three words together.

Members of Mills Lawn School Student Council posed after loading onto a flatbed trailer a record haul from this year’s holiday food drive: a total of 2,008 donated items — the goal had been set at 1,500.

Last Thursday, Dec. 14, Village leaders assembled for the groundbreaking ceremony for Cresco Labs, which has begun construction on a new facility for the cultivation of medical marijuana.

Jesus defined the wicked as those who do not operate their lives based upon the principles of love, mercy, compassion, and equanimity. Sadly, Christians have long fallen short of these ideals.

Camel crickets in the tub. Robinsong and its absence. A koi pond in winter. Hepatica, violet cress, bloodroot, Virginia bluebells. The “iconography” of light on a wall. Memories of adolescent devotion in a Catholic seminary. All of these subjects illuminate local almanac writer Bill Felker’s new book.

The YSHS gymnasium was converted over the weekend into a pay-to-skate roller rink, the senior project of Aza Hurwitz and Jonah Trillana, who conceived of the fundraiser that the school might purchase roller skates of its own.

James P. “Jim” Gray, age 76, passed away Wednesday morning, Dec. 13, 2017, at IU Health University Hospital in Indianapolis.

Grace Marie Funderburg, age 93, of Yellow Springs, passed away peacefully on Monday, Dec. 18, 2017, at Friends Care Center.

It feels bittersweet to Council President Karen Wintrow to step down after 12 years on Council. Especially, she’ll miss the relationships with Village staff and her colleagues on Council.