Hope that Santa was good to everyone. Mrs. Claus gave me a new Sony Walkman to replace the one that finally died on me. I get looks from folks and even a few comments as I seem to be the last person riding the subway listening to cassettes. I haven't moved up to a portable CD player, yet alone MP3. As Elayne will vouch I have dozens of tapes, both music and Old Time Radio that I can't part with.

We spent part of the holiday with Donna's family and I had way too much food. It's strange stuffing myself with pasta and fish dishes, having grown up in a family that kept to the traditional Christmas turkey. The idea was to have only recently finished off the frozen remains of the Thanksgiving feast and to make the X-mas bird last into the New Year. If you've ever seen A CHRISTMAS STORY (one of my Top Five favorite movies) you'll get some idea of how important that turkey was in the Chaput household.