Dozens of dazzling floats will take to the streets and people will flock to Town Center Plaza for other festivities on Saturday Dec. 3,  as Coppell officially kicks off the holiday season!

This year’s edition of the annual parade will feature 37 floats and will follow its usual route travelling west on Parkway Boulevard from its intersection with Samuel Road.

The theme of the parade has been announced to be “Hometown Holiday.” Citizens have been encouraged to enter homemade floats as part of this theme. Floats begin lining up at 3:00 p.m., and the parade itself begins at 6:30, after judges have analyzed the floats.

About 1,500 are anticipated to be in attendance for the parade, but as the Coppell High School Band marches down the street, other festivities will be kicking off at the plaza behind Town Center . These include an indoor Santa Claus photo booth, live Christmas music from the Cover Down Band, fresh food and the annual lighting of the Coppell’s Christmas tree.

Coppell’s annual holiday parade, and the fesitivites at Town Center, is quickly becoming a treasured tradition for citizens and their families. It is sure to be a good time, and who knows – you might even see Frosty The Snowman!

Staff Writer

It is finally time to dig out the winter clothing, CHS. With January now in the rear view mirror, winter weather is just now making its way to Texas with a big introduction. Temperatures at or below freezing are predicted for the rest of this week and there is a chance of snow.

There is a 100% chance of rain tomorrow with a high of 33 and Wednesday and Thursday are even colder. Snow, or at least ice, is highly likely. There is already talk about the possibility of a snow day in Coppell. The possible winter storm is not just affecting Texas, but the nation as a whole. The Midwest is bracing for an intense winter storm of their own, featuring possibilities of ice, snow and a tornado. Parts of the North are also facing low temperatures. The surface of the country could be very white within a few days. Welcome to Texas, Winter.

Holiday decorations line every building from the view on a Starlight Flight Tour. Photo courtesy of David Snell.

Driving around neighborhoods to bask in the twinkling strung lights decorating houses is a common holiday-time activity. Now imagine the breathtaking view of these houses and more while looking down from a single engine Cessna 172 passenger airplane thousands of feet in the air.

Every winter, Starlight Flight hosts an aerial tour of Christmas lights in the Dallas area. Departing from Addison, the plane soars not only over the Dallas skyline, but also nearby neighborhoods and Frisco Square.

“Our Christmas tour flight is similar to our regular 30 to 60 minute flight,” pilot and Starlight Flight owner David Snell said. “We leave from the Addison airport, fly by the Galleria, over Highland Park, visit Love Field and the Texas Stadium. We then see Las Colinas, go downtown, pass the American Airlines Center and Reunion Tower and circle downtown Dallas.

“After that we pass Fair Park, the Cotton Bowl, White Rock Lake, and SMU. That would be a typical 30 minutes flight. The longer you fly, the more you get to see. Our Christmas tour also includes Interlochen [in Arlington] and Deer Park [in Harris County]. If you tell us first, we can even visit your neighborhood.”

Along the way, passengers also fly over the Frisco residence of Jeff and Bridgette Trykoski. Unlike its surrounding homes, this property is notorious for being the largest and most original synchronized light display in all of North Texas. Jeff’s company also organizes the lighting display at Frisco Square.

“I love being able to be a part of what helps bright Frisco during the Christmas season,” Jeff said. “We have more than 85,000 lights that are all synchronized with a radio station and make for a very good show. We even try to give back by collecting canned good for the Frisco Food Bank.”

Both Jeff and Bridgette, among hundreds of other people, have taken Snell’s flight. Aside from being only a fraction of the cost of a normal helicopter ride, passengers love how each flight is customizable. People have the option to include roses, change the flight of the path and passengers can bring the drinks of their choice.

Starlight Flight also allows guests to choose if they would like to donate their flight to a non-profit organization, such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“We’ve seen a bunch of people of all ages and types board these plains, from giddy 4-year-olds to white-knuckled first time flyers,” Snell said. “Being in the business for more than 13 years, it’s important to help those who help us. So, we have some flights that go straight towards organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters and Make-A-Wish. If it’s something we can do, we do it.”

Starlight Flight tours began this past Sunday and will continue through Jan. 1. For more information about the flights or how to book one visit www.StarlightFlight.com or call (817) 588-1817 to request a flight.

Here are just a few tips for countering those procrastinating thoughts when it gets close to the holiday break.

First, try your hardest to stay focused at school. I know this is a hard task for most of us at school anyways but the best thing to do is get your work done the weeks before breaks so that you don’t have to worry about it. Also, ending for breaks with good grades will let you enjoy your break more than if your failing 7 classes and you have 3 projects.

Second, while doing homework and studying make sure you are relaxed and not distracted. I know, for me at least, I like to comfortable and I like doing the hardest thing first so then you can work quickly to get to the easy stuff. If you have a TV on or your on Facebook I recommend you turn it off or log out or at least stay focused and try not to ignore the the work completely.

Third, I feel the best thing to do is to do your work with friends in the same class or study in groups. This way you can still be talking to friends and hanging out while discussing your work.

The annual Madrgal Feast. This holiday themed choir production is sure to intill the holiday spirit for its atendees. Make a reservation on the Choir Boosters’ website.

The annual Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting on Saturday, Dec. 4, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The holiday lights and decorations create an unmistakable atmosphere of holiday cheer.  Town Center Plaza will host holiday tunes, free funnel cakes and lollipops, and and even Santa Claus himself after the parade.

The Coppell public library will be hosting a Holiday Book and Author Fair on December 5th at 2:00. Don’t miss this oppurtunity to meet local authors and buy great holiday gifts!

December 17th holds the event most CHS students anxiously await–the last day of school before winter break!

And of course, we can’t forget the upcoming playoff game against Trinity which will take place December 3rd. Stay posted on CoppellStudentMedia.com for the latest on what you can expect in Coppell this holiday season.

This weekend I made one of the best investments of the year- on Teavana’s most popular tea flavor: Samurai Chai Mate, a combination of two seperate Chai blends.

I had been eyeing this tea since last Christmas, I remember, when I tasted a sample as I hurried out of the mall, debating whether I should make the investment or not. For ten dollars or more per ounce of loose leaf tea, I figured that I should really love it before I buy it.

When I visited the Galleria of Dallas again this Saturday, after having let the idea of the Samarai Chai marinate with each tea craving over the past year, I weighed the pros and cons in my mind once more, which included price, cafeine intake and whether I would actually enjoy the product at home.

The motto of Teavana is, after all, “opening doors to health, wisdom & happiness”, and I was finally able to forsee and check off two of the three for myself. My thought process went a little bit like this:  Wisdom -check- because drinking hot tea will set me in the mood to study, plus the caffeine of the Mate will energize (or crash) me; happiness -double check- because this tea is delicious and makes my taste buds dance with joy and warms me up, which is a definite neccessity for the winter time. (As for the health benefits, I don’t take cafeine well, and I figured that drinking tea with sugar is not a better substitute than water).

Two out of three was good enough for me!

I drink a cup each morning to warm me up and even brought some in a thermus that kept warm for well over four hours on a road trip to UT Austin.

And the Teavana cashier was so right -their organic non-processed cane sugar does “enhance the tea without interrupting the flavor.” (I am for sure a marketer’s dream).

The Coppell Farmers Market is opening up a “Winter Market” on Saturday, Feb. 20 and Saturday, March 20 (or the third Saturday of both months) from 8 a.m. to sell-out at noon at Bethel Road and S. Coppell Road in Old Town Coppell. In addition to shopping for local produce, natural meats and seafood, local artisans will also be present.

The Winter Market previously opened on Jan. 16 and will continue until the regular market reopens in April to continue bringing fresh, local produce to Coppell.

According to the Web site, the Farmers Market’s mission is to “form a relationship with local growers/producers in order to provide fresh, seasonal produce and agricultural products for our community while fostering a sense of place in Old Town Coppell”. It was founded in 2003 by community volunteers and is overseen by the Coppell Community Garden.

For more information, email coppellproduce@gmail.com or go to  http://www.coppellfarmersmarket.org.

The concert is free and will feature a number of pieces that members can only describe as, well, “odd”.

“It’s different kind of concert,” senior Grayson Akerly said. “There’s going be odd instruments and normal instruments used in odd way. It’s going to show people a funny side to percussion ensembles.”

This is the second year the winter showcase will be held, and for those who attended last year, expect to see something different.

According to an advertisement announced during the Red jacket announcements, there will be a gorilla banging a gong during one of the pieces.

“I don’t know [who the gorilla is],” Akerly said. “I’m sure it’s going to be one the high school students, but no one knows who it is.”

Over 80 students from the Coppell middle schools and high school will be performing pieces tomorrow evening at 7 in the CHS auditorium, including a variety of ensembles as well as individual performances. Donations will be accepted to go toward the purchase of new and the repair of old instruments for the CISD percussion program.

“This concert is a really great way to showcase percussion in a different kind of light,” Akerly said. “It’s way more fun than last year.”

Staff Writer

It’s become nearly impossible to view any prime time TV show without being bombarded with ads about the upcoming Olympic games. Not that that is a bad thing – the Olympic games are an athletic tradition that have been anticipated since 776 BC.

The upcoming winter Olympics are being held in Vancouver and will take place starting Feb. 12 and lasting through the 28. Over 500 athletes will compete as representatives of their individual countries to compete for the paramount of athletic success, a gold medal.

Tickets for the games are still available online at the Olympics website, but a majority of the fans will be watching from home. And even though they can’t hear our shouts of support through the TV screen, it’s important to provide ratings so that those athletes know that we’re here for them.

Staff Writer

If you are planning to stay at school for a while after school today, you might want to think again. By five-o-clock, band students from all around the metroplex are going to be flooding Coppell High School to compete in one of the most important competitions of the year: All-Region Band tryouts.

While you might think to yourself, ‘I thought the band had been marching all year. When did they have time to learn tons of music?’ that is exactly what you should be asking.

Few people outside of band know that along with all of the marching music the band members have to learn, they also must master three etudes of difficult music that they perform in the All-Region and Orchestra competitions.

Tonight, small sections such as the saxophones and oboes will perform their pieces, while the instruments that a large number of students play, like the trumpets and flutes, are playing tomorrow.

The process is stressful. All of the tubas go into one room and take turns playing their music for a panel of judges, hidden behind a piece of butcher paper or other such thing so as to not show bias. This is the same with every instrument, however, some of the instruments with the most people competing, like the clarinet section, have to go through two rounds of playing.

So if you have noticed that the band members have been a bit on edge this week, show them some compassion. They’ve had a tough first semester.

For information about the band, visit: http://chsbandboosters.com/