Christmas came early for students at Nathan B. Young Elementary School in Opa-Locka. On Dec. 10, students from Barbara Goleman Senior High School's chapter of the Florida Honor Law Society and their teacher and coach, Ana M. Soto-Gonzalez led a toy drive for two kindergarten classes at the elementary school. Sponsors who donated bicycles and toys included Vicky Bakery in Miami Lakes, Judy L. Farcus Serra, chief financial officer...

     Mrs. Claus traveled from the North Pole on Dec. 5 to read "The Night Before Christmas" to children at Town Hall in Miami Lakes. Mrs. Claus, aka Marcela Murad from All About Entertainment, read the story from a Hallmark pop-up book that had lights and sounds. It is based on the 200-year-old poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," by Clement Clarke Moore. Photo courtesy of the...

     One recent Sunday afternoon, Katherine Dias of Hialeah brought take-out from Bolay Kitchen to her car for the drive home.      “Me and my mom and my family like to eat here,” Dias said of the restaurant, one of several in the  Crescent Pointe retail and office complex in Miami Lakes.      She said the busy parking lots in the front and back of the building at 15121 NW...

Lucia Abadia, Miami Gardens, Retired “I like to see the commercials on TV and in the newspapers that come through the mail, with the sales that those stores are already promoting,” said Lucia Abadia.   “I keep those commercials and ads in my mind when I think about holiday shopping.    “Also with TV commercials, if there’s a discount at a store for things that I may want to...

     The Rev. Daniel Medina feels at home at church and in the classroom.      The clergyman recently became pastor at Miami Lakes Congregational United Church of Christ.      “We’re working together to elevate the entire consciousness of the community,” Medina, 52, said about the church, which he hopes will become a “beacon of Miami Lakes, but in whatever way God...