Winthrop High School boys basketball coach Todd MacArthur watches Logan Baird handle the ball Nov. 22 during a drill at the high school. It was the first day of practice for most high school winter sports teams. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Doug Lane eats a Thanksgiving meal he was given Nov. 25 during the Maine Community Integration Thanksgiving Feast at Kennedy Park in Lewiston. Lane says he is homeless and keeps his belongings in a garbage bag. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Ice forms Nov. 24 on the banks of Bryant Pond in Woodstock as another early sign of winter. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Jaimee Lilley of Lewiston looks back Nov. 26 at her friend Karen Parma as Lilley realizes the sheets of drywall they bought at Home Depot in Auburn were not going to fit into their car. Lilley says she called a friend with a truck to come help them get the building materials home. “She is getting up out of bed just for us,” Lilley says. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Employees with the Auburn Public Works Department secure wires Nov. 22 to the city’s Christmas tree at Festival Plaza. The blue spruce tree was donated by the Sasseville family, owner of The Highlands apartment complex on Center Street in Auburn, where the tree was cut. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Chris Fleming of Longchamps & Sons Inc. of Lisbon sprays water Nov. 23 to help keep dust particles down during demolition of the former Murray/Holman house at the corner of Ware and College streets in Lewiston. Bates College bought it many years ago and used it for various purposes, including storing props for its theater. Area homeowners in the Mountain Avenue Neighborhood Association say they met earlier this year with a Bates administrator and were told the college had decided to demolish the house across from Page Hall. He reportedly said that decision was reached because the building’s interior was in bad shape, and even if the college were to have restored the building, it is a one-family house and no one at Bates has a family large enough to justify buying or renting it. Also, for a house so big, the grounds are small for a large family. The college reportedly plans to landscape the lot. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Nevada Daigle has a decision to make Nov. 20 while decorating the Daigle family’s home on Beans Corner in Jay. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Zoe Collins of Jay decorates the gazebo Nov. 20 in Livermore Falls. Collins’ grandfather, Doug Mosher, led the building project when the gazebo was built in 1990. Mosher’s family has since taken on the tradition of decorating the gazebo each year for Christmas. The lights were turned on the evening after Thanksgiving, according to Collins’ mother, Jocelyn Mosher-Collins. “It’s fun to make the community look nice,” Mosher-Collins says. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Visiting children Nov. 26 check out the Thomas the Tank Engine exhibit, one of the larger scale model layouts popular with young visitors to the Great Falls Model Railroad Club, which is holding its annual ExTRAINaganza. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal