"Deck the Halls with bowls of Challah." (Baron)

Late vote coming in for #1. I agree with anonymous NSHS graduate (like myself), you are essential as the daily newspaper, only more so.

.....Now that's the kind of voting I like. No point in voting any more. I will continue to write here whenever there is anything to write about. I'm pretty much out of material; however, I am sure something will pop up. I am happy to say that I published what will no doubt be my last book. It's called "Fires in the Heart" and it's really "Pater Noster in Condoland Vol. VI". I got tired of that and I came up with a new title which came to me in a dreamlike state. I love the cover also. I'm waiting for the proof copy and if it looks OK, I'll buy a book for each of the four sibs. We are leaving on a cruise to the Caribbean on Monday so perhaps I'll have some news about that adventure when we return on Dec. 24 just in time to celebrate Christmas; only I'm not certain as to how to celebrate it. I thought perhaps a tree with a lot of lights on it, and an angel on the top, but Rho talked me out of it. Then I thought of buying some fireworks, and that idea petered out. Now I'm stuck. Perhaps I'll knock on some doors around here and sing Christmas carols--but I don't think that would go over too well, either. Maybe trick or treating. Maybe I'd get a Milky Way or something. It might be worth a try.

.....I just finished reading "Gates of Fire" a historical novel about the Battle of Thermopylae--about 450 B.C. between the allies Sparta and Greece against Xerxes and the two million Persian Army. It seems that all they ever did back then was fight wars unlike our world of today. Those Spartans certainly knew how to fight; however, 300 of them sacrificed their lives so that the Greeks could retreat and deal the Persian fleet of 600 ships a nasty blow. It's hard to believe how they could build 600 ships back then. At any rate life was pretty hard back then--especially for the war widows and their children. But today, we really know how to take care of the war widows and their children whose husbands and fathers lost their lives in Iraq, Kuwait, or Afghanistan. We've learned so much, haven't we, in the 2500 years since Thermopylae.

.....It's time for my midnight snack and in Publix today I picked up two delicious looking bobka cupcakes. Maybe that's a good way to celebrate Christmas.