Now's the time to decide on your new year's resolutions and if, like me, you've over-indulged during the festive period you might be wanting to cut back on the calories and get healthy. You'll find plenty of ideas for things to do in our Health and Fitness section. Or is your resolution this year not to make (and break) any resolutions? Let us know your goals for the year ahead!
Enjoy your break over Christmas and we'll be back in touch via the blog later next week. In the meantime, let us know the festive traditions you and your family share.
Gray says he knew it was Christmas because his mother bought a jar of piccalilly which sat, unopened, in the cupboard for another 12 months & Alan says he's been writing an annual quiz for his Christmas Day family gathering since 1975!
Tis the season for hangovers and one cracker came along this week for local actor Rhodri Meilir when he played drunken Bilious, the Oh God of Hangovers, in Terry Pratchett's on Sky.
I'm no reviewer, but Rhodri made for a funny and entertaining yet unlikely God, wearing nothing more than a towel and drunken smile. Maybe we'll see more of him - his acting, I mean - in the New Year.
You may have noticed more newly opened coffee shops in Wrexham town centre when frantically going about your Christmas shopping.
It seems the people who put their money into such ventures finally feel like Wrexham folk are now cultured enough to sit back and relax while drinking coffee and looking out through the big glass windows as the world goes by. And about time too, don't you think?
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The latest report following an inspection at Rhyl's makes for grim reading with the school being accused of declining standards.
Now, officials at say they will be working with all concerned to get the school out of trouble as quickly as possible.
A rare recording of a 'carol plygain' - the traditional Welsh Christmas carol - has been discovered in the forgotten files of folk song collector Lady Ruth Herbert Lewis, the wife of a Denbighshire MP, who lived in Flintshire.
The carol - recorded in 1913 - was traditionally sung early on Christmas morning, unaccompanied and only by men, according to .
There are now a total of four campaign groups opposing the A494 road widening plans for Queensferry & Ewloe. Does this confirm the earlier assertion - [Are you a complainer?] - that people are more inclined to rant and rave in public rather than behind closed doors?
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Spare a thought for the old dears of Prince William's Court, Hawarden, who are forever seeing coffins going past their kitchen and bedroom windows. Since a fence blew down in the recent bad weather, they're getting more of a view of the adjacent Co-operative Funeral parlour then they'd care for.
They're calling on the powers-that-be [the undertakers, not God] to get the problem fixed as soon as possible.
Updated: 22 October 09
Here's a round-up of local blogs covering north east Wales. We're on the look-out for more general interest blogs so tell us about your favourites. We ask that you keep them relevant to this region.
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So now your council tax is to pay for new security patrols at schools in Wrexham - with 24-hr cover over the Christmas holidays - because of the increasing amount of vandalism outside of school hours.
The police wouldn't need to employ such tactics if parents knew where their kids were and what they were doing. Am I right? The North Wales Police website [] has the full story.
We've started to research the region's historical links with slavery whilst looking for any legacy which still exists to this day because 2007 marks the Bi-Centenary of the Bill to Abolish the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
It interesting or perhaps shocking to think that some of the region's landmarks will have been built on the profits of slavery like the impressive Four Dogs gateway into the former Acton Hall, Wrexham.
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Did you know that nine out of the 13 speed cameras in North Wales are in Flintshire and yet the county has had the worst accidents record in the region - for the last five years. What does that tell you?
Last year the number of people killed or seriously injured was 64, and more than double that in either Wrexham or Denbighshire. Any ideas as to why that should be the case?
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Denbigh's Caledfryn Credit Union has set up a fund with the support of Vale of Clwyd MP Chris Ruane and Ann Jones AM to help people in the Vale who, combined, lost about £30,000 with the collapse of the Christmas vouchers company, Farepak.
Local newspaper has more info or contact Caledfryn Credit Union on 01745 817444
Don't you just hate ex-smokers? Yes, they are to be applauded for quitting but why do they feel that qualifies them to preach to the smokers? No, that's not the way to do it. The most effective way to reduce the number of smokers is to ban smoking in public places, don't you think?
As a former smoker myself it wasn't being bullied into quitting or even seeing friends and family dying from the effects of smoking that made me quit, it was having fewer places to smoke.
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You will have no doubt noticed that the festive fun has truly started with the booze flowing and the drunks falling into the streets. I've seen blokes getting their kit off on the tables of work's dos and women falling out of their party frocks. Don't you just love this time of year?
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Apologies for The Sun-type headline but it's a story in that newspaper that I wanted to draw your attention to because it shows looking fab and fit! [there I go again]
Anyway, our concern about dieting and its coverage in the Press is an issue brought up time and again by younger contributors concerned that the pursuit of the perfect body can have detrimental health effects, as Sarah points out: "I weighed only 6 stone at 5ft 7 which is very skinny and, looking back, it wasn't nice. I advise anyone to not worry about their weight they are perfect how they are."
Maybe it says more about my age, but I remember as a young reporter sitting in council chambers listening to aged councillors debating local issues. Now, they're younger [not all younger than me, thankfully] and online and writing their own blogs to get across their messages and fighting the corner for their community.
Among them are Ruabon Labour Councillor , his Gwersyllt colleague , who represents Plas Madoc and even .
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reports that the start of Wednesday's public inquiry into plans for a wind farm at Mynydd Rhydd Du, north-west of Gwyddelwern, near Corwen, is likely to be postponed to a later date.
Legal representatives acting for the developers, Tegni, will be requesting an adjournment due to unforeseen last-minute problems.
Concerned residents in Buckley are unhappy with the news that yet another landfill site is being considered in their part of town - dealing with 100,000 tonnes of waste a year for 15 years. You can hear them voice their concerns at the plans around Pinfold Lane on 91Èȱ¬ Radio Wales' listen-again service for today's Good Morning Wales programme [after 7.15am].
Apparently, there has been one landfill or another in the area for three decades and residents are now saying enough is enough. An exhibition of the plans goes on show tonight at Beaufort Park Hotel, New Brighton.
Does it seem justified or heavy handed that mounted police are patrolling Ewloe tonight after a day spent in Wrexham town centre - and on Caia Park housing estate? You can read all about it on the website but, apparently, the horses from Merseyside Police have been drafted in as certain areas become more 'busy' on the run up to Christmas.
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Wrexham Council's webteam has come up with another great new service - you can see the at local restaurants and pubs. In fact, you can view the results for anywhere that provides food from works canteens to children's nurseries.
It doesn't go in to all the small print but you can find out whether a place is doing well or has poor standards. So you can see that Acton Park Hotel, Chester Road, gets five gold stars whereas the Air Products staff canteen, Acrefair, fails to get a single star.
Hope House Children's Hospice is hoping to set a world record on Sunday with 5,000 people dressed as Father Christmas taking part in the [] in Oswestry. Find out how they got on after the event by visiting the local website, bbc.co.uk/shropshire.
That's what being reported in today's following a public meeting at Theatr Elwy in which locals hit out at Denbighshire Council's idea to build 800 new homes between the business park by the A55 and the town as part of the draft local plan.
Denbighshire Council has produced an to show you which routes will be gritted this winter. By the way, you may want to bookmark a page of quick links we've produced in the event of severe weather causing local distruptions over the coming months. Mind you, it wasn't until March that the snow began to fall heavily.