With a record number of women elected to Congress in November and increasing numbers of women speaking out across the globe, females are fighting to be heard.

More than 250 people packed the auditorium of Michele Clark Magnet High School, 5101 W. Harrison St., on Dec. 15 to celebrate the unveiling of a quality of life plan for Austin. 

From Friday through Sunday, Santa was at Carnival Grocery, 824 S. Oak Park Ave.

The sign on Kathy Capone's front door reads, "Ring Bell and Win a Dog," and it's not really a joke. The devoted Animal Care League volunteer regularly fosters dogs, and at last count the total number of fosters housed over her family's 32 years in the house topped 300. 

Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see. 

Bob Cratchit 

"A Christmas Carol"

Participants enjoy free horse-drawn carriage rides along Lake Street on Saturday, Dec. 8, during Home for the Holidays on Marion Street in Downtown Oak Park.

Family members and musicians paid tribute to West Side bluesman Eddie C. Campbell, at a memorial service held Dec. 8 at New Progressive St. James Missionary Baptist Church. 

When Vito and Mary Beth Ippolito purchased their Victorian home in 2015, they knew the River Forest house was in need of some restoration from the moment they first saw it.

With so many holiday activities in the Chicago area, how do people choose with only a few free weekends before Christmas Day? The producers of Sing We Joyous! have a solution — their performance appeals to all ages, from the smallest tot to the tallest teen to the fun-loving grandparent and everyone in between.

For most of his professional career, Alvin Holm has worked as an architect in Philadelphia, but he says, "I've never really left Oak Park." As a 1954 graduate of Oak Park and River Forest High School, he grew up in the village and believes his formative years in Oak Park set him on the path to becoming an architect.