If you see her running down the road, you should know that Newtown resident Amy Griffin is not running away from the holidays — she is running to make a difference. A runner for about a year now, Amy has signed up to take on the Disney’s Princess Half Marathon in Disney World this coming February. “I had posted on Facebook that I was looking for my friends to send me the name of a little girl who deserved a trip to Disney, and why,” Amy tells me. Rena Rose Malcolm and her family, of Florida, were introduced to her by a mutual friend. Four-year-old Rena has been diagnosed with cancer of the kidneys. “She has endured radiation, chemo, and numerous blood transfusions since June 2010. I knew immediately this was the little princess I would run in honor of. And ironically enough, when I began reading her mom’s journal entries on CaringBridge, her family refers to her as a Warrior Princess,” Amy says.

Rena and her mom have been living in Pennsylvania where Rena can receive treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, while her dad and sister remain in Florida. Even though Amy doesn’t know Rena, she is hoping to raise enough money to reunite the family on a trip to Disney World. As she writes in her entry at runningforadifference.com, “… at the end of this battle of Rena’s, I want to honor her name as Warrior Princess, and send her on a trip to Disney World, where all Princesses laugh, smile, and roam with laughter and magic, all day long. She deserves this, and to do this with her family, all together!” To support Amy, visit runningforadifference.com and donate.

If “Walking In A Winter Wonderland” is your favorite holiday tune, you might want to don your cap and mittens and join the Friends and Neighbors of Putnam Park and the State Park DEP for the final event of the year: the Annual Winter Walk at Putnam Park. The walk, led by our own town historian, Dan Cruson, is about 45 minutes long, and Mr Cruson will describe the Revolutionary War winter encampment that took place in the park as you stroll the paths. Reenactment soldiers will lend authenticity to the event. The walk and talk are free. Meet at the Putnam Park Visitor’s Center, at the junction of Route 107 and Route 58, Saturday, December 4, by 11 am. For questions, contact Scott Stetler at 203-742-0089.

Hanukkah, also known as The Festival of Lights, began at sundown this Wednesday evening, and as part of the ongoing celebration, on Tuesday, December 7, Congregation Adath Israel will hold a community candle lighting at the Huntingtown Road synagogue, with a potluck dinner to follow. The candle lighting starts at 6:30 pm.

A recent article in The New York Times had my whiskers standing at full attention. It seems that beekeepers in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn were seeing red: red bees, that is. The theory is, the bees were attracted to the sweet runoff of the nearby Dell’s Maraschino Cherries Company, returned home with rosy bellies, and commenced to produce honey the color of cough and allergy medicines. Maybe they thought red honey would put everyone in the holiday spirit?

Newtowners Rosalind Liljengren and Karen Pinto will once again be showing their work at the Connecticut Clay Artists’ annual show and sale of functional and decorative stoneware, earthenware, raku, and porcelain. They join a dozen other area artists at the old Ruben’s store, 3 Sugar Hollow, in Danbury, Friday, December 3, from 6 to 8 pm; December 4 and 5, from 10 am to 4 pm; December 10–12 and December 17–19, from 10 am to 4 pm.

Tom Mahoney, with the assistance of his little French bulldog, Ben, was underway with decorating the lobby of Edmond Town Hall, Wednesday afternoon, in preparation for this weekend’s Holiday Festival. Edmond Town Hall will be awakened from its slumber on Sunday, with lots of holiday activities taking place in the former town office space. Of course, by Sunday, I’ll have already sung carols in Ram Pasture at the Tree Lighting, Friday, at 6:30 pm, visited with Santa at Sabrina Style in Sandy Hook Center on Saturday afternoon, put my paw print on a chance to win one of the many beautifully decorated and donated trees or gift baskets at the Festival of the Trees in the C.H. Booth Library — and pawed through some choice book selections at the Friends’ Holiday Book Sale there — peeked in the doorways of the four Main Street homes on the Annual Holiday House Tour, and be ready to head to the final tree lighting of the weekend at the Hawleyville Post Office Plaza on Barnabas Road. Somewhere in there I plan to make it over to see The Town Players’ production of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, at the Little Theatre on Orchard Hill Road, too. Whew. Let the holidays begin!

Our editor was in the holiday spirit Wednesday morning, or so I thought when I heard him humming that Christmas carol, “Do You See What I See?” Apparently, I was asleep on the job, but he spotted a mischievous vole sprinting about the editorial offices. The vole was not able to outrun our editor, who is as quick with his reflexes as he is with his wit, and the unwelcome visitor was relocated to the great outdoors in short order. A lapse like this, I fear, could put my position as Top Cat here at The Bee at risk. I’m on red alert, from now on.

Thanksgiving may be over and the big food drives history, but please don’t forget to put our two town food pantries on your gift list this month. FAITH Food Pantry and the town food pantry at Town Hall South continue to need donations of nonperishable food items, toilet paper, paper towels, and toiletries. There are donation bins set up in numerous businesses around town, or feel free to drop off items to either location.

The best gift you could give me, of course, is to be sure next week to…. Read me again.