Orchids are so popular nowadays that they are being offered for sale not only in garden centers but also in drug stores and grocery stores as well as big box stores.          As houseplants, they have the advantage of producing flowers over a long period of time. They tolerate shade and perform well even when abused. They are also light to ship.

Over $10,000. That’s what the average American spent for health care in 2016, and up is where that number is heading.      “My wife’s health insurance jumped 38.9 percent,” laments a friend recently retired. “My pension is disappearing.”      Across the age spectrum, you hear endless variationa of the same story.

     Now that winter has come to Maryland, the State Highway Administration is hard at work keeping our roads free of snow and ice. Snowplows are a familiar sight after a heavy snowfall. But just as much work goes on before the cold stuff even starts to fall. As soon as snow, sleet or freezing rain is forecast, fleets of trucks lay a preemptive layer of de-icers.

     The civil rights movement raised its courage and renewed its hope on the music of faith that sustained black America through slavery, Jim Crow and oppression. The national Martin Luther King Jr. holiday makes this a weekend to hear that music loud and clear.       Two local African American choruses sing in Annapolis this weekend, both at St. John’s College.  

      Like a holiday box of chocolates (thanks Bill Vance, Betsy and Alex), this week’s paper brings you a variety of choices, all I hope to your taste. (And none, I hope, that sticky cough-medicine flavor that makes you say yuck!)

      All the best stories are about dogs. This is the opinion of my 10-year-old daughter, so her claim carries some weight.       But for me, all the best stories take place at Christmas. Whether I am watching Southern High School’s production of A Christmas Carol or reading the story of Nativity from the Gospel of Luke, I am reminded that miracles happen in the presence of those who believe, and all the best stories contain miracles.

     He errs who thinks Santa enters through the chimney. Santa enters through the heart. –Charles W. Howard, 1937         Loud music, bright flashing lights, sensory stimulation, mounting excitement: The very things that make this time of year magical can become a recipe for distress for some children and their weary parents.

     You have 10 days to complete your gift-giving mission. Having difficulty coming up with brilliant ideas to wow and impress?       Here Bay Weekly helps you think outside the Big Box and impersonal online shopping sites by browsing and buying at small businesses and shops in Chesapeake Country. We talked to many of our favorites to find out what surprises you can find on their shelves.

      You can experience the holidays in every Maryland county with just one stop. In the State House rotunda in Annapolis are 24 Christmas trees, each decorated to reflect the character of one county plus Baltimore City.       Garden clubs across the state decorate a tree “reflecting the rich tradition of their county,” says Megan McMinn-Meals, who oversees the three-year-old program, which now includes wreaths, too. 

     “The first tundra swans of the season have arrived on Fairhaven pond.” Jimbo Degonia‎ posted the news on Bay Weekly’s Facebook page Tuesday, November 21, documenting their arrival with this photo. That’s early for birds usually seen after the first of December.      A week later I saw a pod of three of the snow-white birds on the same pond, and more since.