There’s something about the holiday season that brings out the best in just about everyone. Sure, there’s the persistent curmudgeon, and the occasional family fireworks. But for most of us, most of the time, the holidays actually do bring a measure of good will and cheer.

 Neighborhood non-profit agencies will tell you the holiday season also brings out the volunteering spirit in many of us – every year, more volunteers that can be allocated during the holidays will make the decision to help out at a soup kitchen or donate clothing to a shelter or provide meals for the hungry.

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And then the post-holiday credit card bills arrive along with the other post-holiday letdowns. That’s the time when the volunteer in us seems to disappear and the Grinch in us seems to reappear. It’s a simple fact of human nature: Not many of us stay engaged in the business of helping others for very long. 

One of our feature stories this month introduces you to an individual who keeps on giving long after the holly branches have dried up. Active in various neighborhood organizations, volunteering time and money to many community groups, this neighbor doesn’t leave the holiday spirit behind come January – you can count on him all year long.

Isn’t that the way it should be?

I thought you might be interested in learning a little about the new Super Target going up at Skillman and Abrams on the site of the Christmas tree stand for so many years.

Target officials in Minnesota, where the chain is based, say the new store will open March 11 and be stocked with groceries, a deli, pharmacy, floral shop, bank, one-hour photo and portrait studio, juice and coffee bar, restaurant and bakery.

The store will have about two miles of shelf space in its 177,000 square feet.

Also interesting is that Target plans to continue operating the Medallion Center store just up the street, with the spokesman saying: “There’s enough of a market for both stores.”

Come to think of it, that’s about the same thing the owners of the new American Airlines Arena are saying about the possible demolition of Reunion Arena, too. We’ll see on both counts, I guess.

Several other big projects are in the works for the Northwest Highway-Abrams area, and we’ll let you know when details become available.

The long-rumored Lake Highlands-area Starbucks Coffee shops remain just that: a rumor.

As of mid-November, a Starbucks spokesman says no leases have been signed in Lake Highlands and declined to speculate on whether any negotiations are ongoing.

In what could be considered a hopeful position, the spokesman didn’t outright deny the rumors, instead choosing to offer this meaty tidbit: “We are always looking at new places where coffee lovers abound.”

Surely, Lake Highlands must qualify as a place abounding in coffee lovers… .