The Daily Five: Tree Lighting Ceremony, Breakfast with Santa, Santa Speedo Run, and Patch New & Improved

1. It should be a lovely day. Weather.com has stopped hedging its bets with "partly cloudy" and is going for "mainly sunny" today with a high of 49 degrees. Tonight should be cool and clear with a low temperature of 31 degrees.   

2. The forecast bodes well for Old Lyme's tree lighting and community carol sing at Old Lyme Memorial Town Hall. The event, which was cancelled last Friday due to rain, will be held today at 4 p.m. Music will be provided by the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School band and the Lyme-Old Lyme's very talented Select Singers will be making sure we all stay on key. There will be free cocoa and cookies for all who attend this 14th annual lighting ceremony. 

3. The weather for Saturday is pretty much the same as today but it's going to be a few degrees colder, which is going to make the 5th Annual Santa Speedo Benefit Run an even cooler event.

This annual fundraiser for Sandy Clarke and MaryKate Mundell, both of whom have suffered with rare lung diseases, involves a bracing one-mile fun run (or walk) along Main Street Niantic in bathing suits, ideally Speedos although Speedos aren't ideal for everyone!

The race starts and ends at The Black Sheep, 247 Main Street, Niantic. Registration begins at 10:15 a.m. and the race starts at 11 a.m. and typically lasts all of 10 minutes. (No one wants anyone to suffer from hypothermia, no matter how good the cause!) There's no need to register in advance but participants are asked to pledge at least $100. For more information, visit: www.ctsantaspeedorun.com.

4. Families in search of a more appropriately dressed Santa will find the jolly old fellow in traditional garb in Lyme on Sunday. The Lyme Fire Company will be holding its annual Breakfast With Santa Sunday, December 16th from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Hamburg Fire Station, 213 Hamburg Road. This beloved community tradition is an all ages event, offering a hearty breakfast and the opportunity for kids to give their wish lists to Santa. 

5. Patch is relaunching at the end of this weekend, and it's not just going to look different, it's going to be easier than ever to use! The site will still offer all the latest local news, announcements, listings, and local voices bloggers but in a new format that really showcases what Patch is all about.

Patch was never intended to be just an online newspaper. No, it's much more than that. Patch is designed to be a community forum, a social networking site (like Facebook) but for an entire community.

On the new site, you'll be able to choose the news you want to get by "following" different groups. And you'll be able to start your own group and attract your own followers. Think of it as having your own web site, but on Patch!

The platform is brand new. We're kicking the tires before we turn the key but we'll all be test-driving this together so if you find the ride a bit bumpy to start, please, let us know. We'll be troubleshooting as we go along.

Having said that, I think that once we're up and running you'll find it's like going from a manual shift to automatic with self-parking capacity—ridiculously easy!