(L-R) Rachel Pittman, Eugenia King, Bishop George Sumner, Ron & Angela Poen, Mayor George Fuller, Maylee Thomas Fuller, Lori & Raj Bhargava. On Sunday, December 6, McKinney Mayor George Fuller, with wife, Maylee Thomas Fuller, Bishop Sumner of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, board members of the Episcopal Foundation of Dallas and others took part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the first kitchen in the county dedicated to serving prepared meals to people in need. Community Garden Kitchen of Collin County (CGK), a 501(c)3 nonprofit, will be located in east McKinney, at 500 Throckmorton Street, McKinney, sharing the property with Holy Family Pre-School. photo by Lisa Smith

"There were only two things I wanted do to in my life," Lanny Joe Burnett will confess. "One was to play Little League baseball and the other was to be a cowboy." The first came true enough, Lanny Joe Burnett played for the Harry Dial Hardware Yankees in the Honey Grove Little League. As for the second, well, he would be the first to say he is still working on that one.

Teagan La Vergne visits with her uncle, Randy Patton, who is a Bonham resident and McKinney Police Officer. The pastor, officers and members of Bethlehem Baptist Church paused to recognize all the men and women of our local police and fire departments across the county. Conversation and a warm meal were shared in the spirit of building a bond between the church and first responders.

Just as the fog lifted and the sun peaked through the clouds, a Sunday morning procession slowly made its way along West 5th Street, down North Main Street and then along 10th Street to St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Bonham on December 15, 2019, to honor Virgen de Guadalupe, Juan Diego's sacred vision of the Virgin Mary on December 9, 1531.

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension will host a Master Gardener training beginning in February to train new Master Gardeners! The training is set to begin February 18, 2020 and will take place from 9:00 am- 4:00 pm for nine consecutive weeks and conclude on April 14, 2020. The trainings will be held at the Derrell Hall Education Center, 2505 North Center Street in Bonham, TX, 75418.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest. The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Counteroffensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II, and took place from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in eastern Belgium, northeast France, and Luxembourg, towards the end of the war in Europe. The offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and to split the Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroy four Allied armies and force the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers' favor. Although the offensive was effectively broken by 27 December, when the trapped units of 2nd Panzer Division made two break-out attempts with only partial success, the battle continued for another month before the front line was effectively restored to its position prior to the attack. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, as survivors retreated to the defenses of the Siegfried Line. The Germans' initial attack involved 410,000 men; just over 1,400 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns; 2,600 artillery pieces; 1,600 anti-tank guns; and over 1,000 combat aircraft, as well as large numbers of other armored fighting vehicles (AFVs). These were reinforced a couple of weeks later, bringing the offensive's total strength to around 450,000 troops, and 1,500 tanks and assault guns. Between 63,222 and 98,000 of these men were killed, missing, wounded in action, or captured. For the Americans, out of a peak of 610,000 troops, 89,000 became casualties out of which some 19,000 were killed. The "Bulge" was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the third deadliest campaign in American history.