This has been some crazy time these holidays -- so much to do and so little time to do it all. Vito finally landed his reindeer in Tuckahoe at about 2 a.m., and we sat at the kitchen table for some time after that drinking port and miscommunicating. Then to bed, unable to fall asleep for some time (and I had been fighting sleep, a bitter battle, just a few hours earlier -- not wanting Vito to have to ring the doorbell upon his arrival). So for most of today I had that special combination of grogginess and wracked-nerves that can only mean the Christmas is upon us.

Santa Claus was good to me: I got a ship in a bottle, a cast-iron hibachi grill, and King Kong mutandes that roar.