A 29-year Pittsburgh tradition, the popular Pittsburgh Celebrate the Season holiday parade offers a parade of fabulous floats, costumed characters and high school bands and other musical entertainment this Saturday, November 28, 2009, in downtown Pittsburgh. Some of the local celebrities slated to appear or perform in the 2009 parade include Jerome Bettis, national music superstars The Drifters, Mark Milovats, Joe Mascolo (better known as Stefano Dimera of "Days of Our Lives"), The Softwinds and Rachel Rothenberg (2009 Jeopardy! Teen Tournament champion). The Celebrate the Season parade will also include giant balloon characters such as Elmo, Bob the Builder, and Hello Kitty; area marching bands; colorful floats; and of course Santa.

The 2009 parade route begins at 9:00 a.m. at Mellon Arena and continues down Fifth Avenue, turns left onto Wood Street, right onto Boulevard of the Allies ending at Stanwix Street. If you can't make it downtown for the parade, it will air live on WPXI-TV from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m.

The newest exhibit at Phipps Conservatory in Oakland, the Fräbel Glass Show "Life in the Gardens," combines whimsical glass characters with holiday touches. German-born glassblower Hans Godo Fräbel has clowns, fairies, frogs and lizards peeking out from among the trees and plants in every room of Phipps. In addition, LED lights illuminate trees throughout the conservatory, and greenery wreaths and swags decorate the exterior. Over 10 varieties of poinsettias (845 plants in all), combine with paper whites and amaryllis, to add beautiful color to every corner of the conservatory.

Holiday magic can also be found in the two model trains running throughout the conservatory. Santa will be visiting on Saturdays and Sundays until Christmas from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Let's face it. Thanksgiving dinner is a lot of work. Especially if you don't enjoy the cooking like I do. If you dread handling dinner and aren't heading to Grandma's, why not let someone else do the work? A number of Pittsburgh area restaurants are serving dinner on Thanksgiving Day - although you need to get those reservations in now if you haven't already. Plus, there are other area restaurants and caterers who will do all the cooking for you - just pre-order your Thanksgiving Dinner to Go, including roast turkey and all the trimmings, and then take it home to your holiday table.

As the parent of a high-school junior, it's hard not to be concerned with the rising cost of a good college education. Now, as if higher learning doesn't already cost enough, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is proposing a 1 percent tax on college tuition, hoping to raise about $16 million a year, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, to close a shortfall in the city's pension fund and help aid the struggling Carnegie Library system. This proposed college education "privilege tax" would be paid on tuition only by students who attend post-secondary schools in the city, including colleges, universities, art, business and culinary schools.

All ten schools represented by the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education have joined together to oppose the major's plan, Read more...