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GILROY—With one steal, Gavilan’s Brittany Valdez changed the entire game.

On my previous visits to Calero County Park, I have always walked the lower portions of the park nearer the reservoir. This terrain bobs and rolls over round hills dotted with coast live oaks, valley oaks and bay trees. As you move away from the lake toward the park's southern boundary, the Bald Peaks ridge leaps 1,000 feet above the reservoir. From that high perch, the full sweep of the Bay Area spreads out beneath you.

Here we are, first week of January, clouds of holiday tissue finally swept from beneath our feet. A Christmas ornament, dropping from a dehydrated branch, plops on the rug, rolls hollowly onto the hearth. New Year's resolutions tap us on the shoulder, reminding us of our newly-minted vows. Get organized. Drop those Christmas pounds. Bring the budget back into check.

Rains that hit Hollister in mid-December are drops in the right direction but haven't lifted the state out of a three-year drought or refilled San Benito County's three reservoirs.

Majestically sitting 2,135 feet above the sea level of the Mediterranean, Madrid gloriously holds the record of the highest capital in Europe. This stunningly beautiful city greets the traveler like a long-lost relative. Claiming “the next best place after Madrid is heaven,” the city has a way of really making the foreigner feel at home.

The National Weather Service issued an alert for the Hollister area and much of the Bay Area warning of overnight temperatures dropping to freezing or below freezing levels.

Morgan Hill’s Cinelux Tennant Station Stadium 11 is among about 300 theaters nationwide that will show Sony Pictures’ “The Interview” when in opens Christmas Day, Dec. 25, according the film’s Facebook page.

For the most part, holiday traditions are very similar across the world. Families come together to share the holiday spirit, gifts are exchanged and there is usually food involved. Generosity is spread to those less fortunate, and there tends to be a feeling of being uplifted.

The San Benito County 2015 Homeless Census is looking for 25 to 40 volunteers to create a point-in-time count of people living outdoors in January as part of a nationwide effort to quantify homelessness.

The Plaza History Association is hosting a special exhibit where volunteers in period dress display firearms more than a century old.