12 Days of Small Businesses: Wunderbar Coffee House

On each of the remaining days leading up to Christmas, we’ll feature a different local business.

Looking for unique and creative holiday gifts? Throughout the 12 days leading up to Christmas, we're highlighting small businesses in the Cranberry area where you can find great gifts for loved ones. Today, the eighth day of Christmas, it's Wunderbar Coffee House in Harmony, a cozy place to relax between all that holiday shopping. Husband-and-wife team Roc and Vicky Dornbrook opened Wunderbar inside the Center of Harmony on Mercer Street in 2012. Roc Dornbrook, a native of Argentina, told Cranberry Patch he and his wife decided to open the coffee shop after the closure of Beecher’s, a Zelienople coffeehouse that burned down in 2008. “They were the only coffee shop in the area,” he said. “We really missed them.” The coffee house serves …

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12 Days of Small Businesses: McGinnis Sisters Special Food Store

On each of the remaining days leading up to Christmas, we’ll feature a different local business.

Looking for unique and creative holiday gifts? Throughout the 12 days leading up to Christmas, we're highlighting small businesses in the Cranberry area where you can find great gifts for loved ones. Today, the sixth day of Christmas, it's McGinnis Sisters Special Food Store along Route 228 in Adams Township. Sisters Bonnie McGinnis Vello, Sharon McGinnis Young and Noreen McGinnis Campbell run the family-owned grocery store, which has several locations in the Pittsburgh area. The sisters took over the business, originally opened by their parents as a small produce stand in Baldwin, in 1981. In 2008, they opened the Adams Shoppes location. If you’re cooking dinner for Christmas this year, the store offers a variety of holiday hams. The …

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12 Days of Small Businesses: Great Gift Ideas You Can Find Right in the Cranberry Area

On the first day of Christmas, we’re featuring …

Looking for unique and creative holiday gifts? Throughout the 12 days leading up to Christmas, we're highlighting small businesses in the Cranberry area where you can find great gifts for loved ones. Today, it's Tin Man Sweets in Evans City, which is accepting orders now for Christmas breads, cakes, cookies and pies sure to please your holiday guests. Recently crowned the second-place winner in WPXI’s Best Cupcakes in Pittsburgh contest, Tin Man promises the goodies will be ready for your table by Dec. 24. Husband-and-wife baking team Justin and Maria Wroblewski opened Tin Man Sweets in August after running the business out of their home for four years. Many of the recipes used at the bake show have been passed down through Justin …

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St. Barnabas' Holiday Celebration Kicks Off Presents For Patients Campaign

Gifts sought for nursing home residents.

When St. Barnabas lit its 90-foot-high Christmas tree Thursday night, it also illuminated a need. The tree lighting was part of the Country Christmas celebration at the Richland campus that kicked off the 29th Presents For Patients® campaign. It brightens the holidays for long-term care residents by matching them with a visitor who personally delivers a gift.  Paul Cathmar of the Arbors at St. Barnabas received the first gift—a cowboy hat and country Christmas CDs—at Thursday night's festivities.  The goal of this year’s campaign is serve more than 30,700 patients at 353 facilities throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, West Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina. Presents For Patients® is operated as a community outreach program by St. …

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Tree Lighting, Holiday Festivities Kick Off Presents for Patients® Campaign

Presents for Patients® celebrates 29th season with community night on St. Barnabas campus in Richland Township.

Looking for an old-fashioned holiday celebration with horse-drawn hayrides, hot cocoa by a bonfire, Christmas carols, a tree lighting and Santa? The public is invited to the free Country Christmas community night from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday that kicks off the 29th annual Presents for Patients® campaign at St. Barnabas' Gibsonia campus at 5827 Meridian Road in Richland Township. Zambelli fireworks will cap the night. The event is designed to showcase the benefits of the Presents for Patients® program that brightens the holidays for long-term care residents by matching them with a visitor who personally delivers a gift.  Those in attendance are asked to bring a new unwrapped gift for a nursing home patient. Suggested items include warm …

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Patch Poll: How Much Is Your 2012 Holiday Budget?

Have you trimmed your spending because of the economy or has good fortune enabled you to spend more?

Many of you might already be done with your holiday shopping. Still others might be waiting for even better deals that sometimes pop up prior to Christmas. But how does your spending compare to prior holiday seasons? Those who have lost jobs due to the economy, who feel their jobs might be threatened or who have suffered other setbacks might be a little tighter with the purse strings than someone who just got that promotion. With Black Friday and Small Business Saturday over, and Cyber Monday waiting for a business surge tomorrow, you should have a pretty good handle on your 2012 holiday budget. So how much do you plan to spend this holiday season? Let us know by voting in our poll. And tell us in the comments section why you are spending …

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NE12Ukid

12:18 pm on Monday, December 3, 2012

Well, James, I'm big on doing those things around the holidays that bring you joy, satisfaction, or bring such to others. Which is why I support your choices as they bring joy to you and yours. If you love baking and giving cookies to everyone around you, that can be a great way for you to celebrate the holiday. If going to church services does it for you, then that's what you should do. If …   more ›

Transportation Detours, Street Closings Set for Pittsburgh's Light-Up Night Festivities, Parade

If you're heading for the annual festivities scheduled for Friday and Saturday around the Golden Triangle, plan your route and parking options first.

Planning to head to Downtown Pittsburgh Friday for Light-Up Night? How about Saturday for the Sounds of the Season Parade or other daylong holiday activities planned throughout the Golden Triangle? Here are schedules and transportation details you'll want to keep in mind. Pittsburgh's 52nd annual Light-Up Night begins at noon Friday, when Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl lights the tree at the City-County Building on Grant Street. Also set for noon: the annual dedication and blessing of the traditional Christmas creche at U.S. Steel Tower on Grant Street. Most festivities begin at 5 p.m. Friday, however, with events scheduled for three stage locations — in Market Square, on the Clemente Bridge and at EQT Plaza. Performers include Joe …

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The Editor's Notepad

From The Feast of the Seven Fishes to a Slovak Christmas: What’s Your Holiday Tradition?

Editor Jessica Bruni Sinichak grew up participating in the traditional Italian feast, but what are you doing?

I'll admit it, as a child, I really didn't appreciate taking part in The Feast of The Seven Fishes, the traditional Italian-American meal served on Christmas Eve that involves no meat. I was a picky eater, and the mere thought of dining on eels, smelts and a variety of other exotic creatures from the sea was enough to make me cringe. Instead, I stuck to salads and plain bowls of buttered noodles as I wondered why we couldn't have a ham or turkey like everyone else I knew.   As I got older – and became more open to other foods -- I began to appreciate the tradition behind the meal, which, in my family, dates to the early 1920s. At that time, the Cangi and the Bruni families settled on Larimer Avenue in East Liberty, a predominantly Italian-…

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Jessica Sinichak

10:59 am on Thursday, December 23, 2010

Wow, I'm suddenly feeling hungry! Thanks for sharing Mike!   more ›

Day Tripper

Day Tripper Discovers the Details Behind the Decorations at Hartwood Acres Mansion

Holiday embellishments and candlelight tours mark the holiday season at the historic mansion.

The holidays bring a variety of seasonal activities, and one of my favorite holiday traditions is visiting the Hartwood Mansion at Hartwood Acres. Every year, volunteers decorate the mansion for the holiday season. A few weeks ago, I had a sneak preview of this year’s adornments. It is a must visit for history lovers as well as for those who enjoy the holidays. Hartwood Acres, which is in Indiana and Hampton townships, is part of the Allegheny County Park system. The mansion was once home to John and Mary Flinn Lawrence. Mary was the daughter of William Flinn, a Pittsburgh construction baron in the late 1800s. Even without the holiday ornamentation, the mansion is beautiful. The Lawrences commissioned architect Alfred Hopkins to …

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The Unhip Chick

Online Shopping Takes Some Stress Out of the Holidays

There’s no need to wait outside in the cold for stores to open at 4 a.m. when you can just fire up your computer.

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful that I don’t have to join the throngs of shoppers waiting in the wee hours of the morning outside of Best Buy, Target, Kohl’s and other retail stores. Call me Scrooge, but I hate shopping during the holiday season. I enjoy giving gifts to my family, friends and coworkers, but I hate the hot, crowded stores and long lines. I especially dislike dealing with the frazzled nerves of other shoppers and store personnel. I speak from experience, of course. I spent one Christmas season during college working in retail. That was enough for me. It was not a pleasant experience. A few years ago, I had to run out to a local superstore on a Sunday afternoon just days before Christmas. The store was jam packed, and it was …

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