The McDuffie County school system looks forward to 2012 with much anticipation. The system will face its five-year review by the SACS CASI National accreditation system. This District Accreditation process is a means by which SACS sends a review team to visit our schools and determines what positive efforts have been made to improve our schools and possibly provide insight into recommendations for future initiatives.

The new year has begun and, like in other years, many of us plan to make healthier choices. With an adult smoking rate of almost 20 percent in Georgia, there’s no better time than now to make a plan to quit smoking. The American College of Physicians, the second-largest physician organization in the country, has long promoted smoking-cessation programs to improve health.

Quitting tobacco, or stopping smoking, is one of the single most difficult things for someone to do, yet it’s also the best decision you can make to positively impact your health.

The fading moment that we call 2011 has left a set of impressions in every mind. You will remember the year for your own reasons, and I will remember the slice of time for mine.

Those reasons might intertwine more than you would imagine. Let’s share. May I go first?

I’ll start my list with a Valentine’s Day wedding, across the bridge in South Carolina. That event shaped my year and many years to come. Of course, no husband should begin a list with any other event. That’s a reality that even I can grasp.

And your list?

OK, I’ll tell one more.

And the minute his heart didn’t feel quite so tight, he whizzed on his sleigh through the bright morning light. Carving the Who’s delicious roast beast was the best, but without something to hate, the Grinch felt distressed.