Christmas 2006

“Somewhere toward the beginning of my sixteenth year, I read that more people committed suicide during the holidays than at any other time of year. From this, I concluded that Christmas would kill me.”

So I wrote in a recent essay, which was included in HarperCollins' “Worst Noel” anthology (sure to be on a remainder table at a store near you). I’m happy to report that the holidays have yet to finish me off. In the next few days, I look forward to:

** Seeing my brother and his family
** Eating my mom’s trifle
** Hosting ten quinjillion people for Christmas dinner
** Watching my sons play, respectively, a shepherd and a lion in their Christmas pageant (but were there lions in the Holy Land?)
** Getting the ear buds to the Ipod I got last Christmas, which will encourage me, God willing, to figure out how to use the damn thing in the first place.

Hope everyone else’s holidays are happy and safe.