Lifestyle
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Creating a simple garden sanctuary for year-round relaxation
Dec 17, 2025 9:29 am - Now’s a good time to start thinking about next year's garden.
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Piping impaired? ‘Embroidery’ cookies turn frosting dots into seasonal designs
Dec 17, 2025 5:53 am - Not great at piping on cookies? Try dots. Cookbook author Molly Yeh has perfected this technique of piping dots into a configuration that resembles embroidery. She shares some of her go-to designs, plus her version of the ideal sugar cookie cutout — sturdy enough to hold up to decorating, yet soft enough to melt in your mouth.
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How to bake your best batch of cutout cookies yet
Dec 17, 2025 5:38 am - Cutout cookies are a holiday baking staple. Yet it can be all too easy to watch in dismay as your dough sticks and tears or those cute little snowmen turn into a shapeless blobs. If you’re looking to take your cutout cookies to a new, neater level, here are some top tips.
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Ditch the bowl for this festive, shapely Christmas Tree SaladDec 17, 2025 5:28 am - All you need is a cutting board and a decorative flair to turn your favorite salad recipe into a festive Christmas tree. This recipe starts with lettuce greenery trimmed with ornaments made of salami, tomatoes, chickpeas and olives, all draped with red onion garland. And the star on top? Cheese.
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Home & garden calendar, Dec. 21-27Dec 17, 2025 3:30 am - Garden club meetings in the Chicago suburbs cover a range of topics such as creating moonlit spaces, hardscape designs, succulents, prairies and bison, and using native plants in home landscapes.
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Three Aurora churches to partner in Steeple Walk to benefit food pantryDec 16, 2025 11:37 pm - Three Aurora churches - Wesley United Methodist, Our Savior Lutheran, and New England Congregational - will host their first Steeple Walk on Dec. 21.
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Wheaton’s Gary UMC hosts family Christmas Eve serviceDec 16, 2025 9:42 pm - People of all ages will participate in sharing the story of the birth of Jesus at the 4 p.m. Christmas Eve family service at Gary United Methodist Church, 224 N. Main S...
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Bartlett’s Living Lord Lutheran Church hosts candlelight services and Pop-Up PageantDec 16, 2025 8:37 pm - Living Lord Lutheran Church in Bartlett is hosting three candlelight Christmas Eve services on Dec. 24: two contemporary family services at noon and 3 p.m., and a traditional service at 9 p.m.
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Celebrate Christmas with carols and candlelight at Geneva churchDec 16, 2025 7:55 pm - The United Methodist Church of Geneva is inviting the community to celebrate Christmas with three candlelight services.
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Geneva Unitarian church celebrates Christmas with three holiday servicesDec 16, 2025 7:34 pm - The Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva invites everyone in the community to celebrate the joys of the Christmas season at three special services, each to be held in the church’s historic sanctuary