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At a Christmas party we co-hosted one year with our upstairs neighbors/friends in Brooklyn, a pair of thieves, a couple posing as guests stole credit cards from purses and wallets in jackets stored in our bedroom, while our infant daughter slept in the next room.

I once visited the town of North Pole, Alaska. Didn't find Santa though.

In the penultimate Saturday chronology of pictures this year, this chestnut of the double daughter pile-on tradition in our last Brooklyn apartment.

Short story + hand-drawn ilo: All I Want for Christmas When I was age 4, I woke up at my grandparents' house on Christmas morning before everyone else and opened up all the gifts. Behind me was a discard pile of boring stuff, like clothes. Toys in front. I Grinched it up good.

I played an “Ethiopian slave boy” (no lines) in a community theater Christmas production when I was 9. My regrettable costume: brownface and torso (for I wore no shirt), brown pantyhose (to save on using more brown make-up, presumably), arm bands and loincloth (read: mini-skirt).

My favorite Christmas movie? It’s a Wonderful Life My favorite Christmas song? Fairytale of New York cnn.com/2015/12/21/hea…

I once jumped in the Irish Sea on Christmas day, a tradition in which people leap from from the Forty Foot rocky cliff just outside Dublin, a spot made famous from the opening of James Joyce's “Ulysses.”

I finished 27 books this year. My 6 favorite were: * Tacky by Rax King * To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee * Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti * Born to Run by Christopher McDougall * 11/22/63 by Stephen King * Trainspotting and Shallow Grave screenplays by John Hodge

My 7 favorite audiobooks of '24: * Britney Spears memoir * Sinatra bio The Chairman * Road to Paradise (Apocalypse Now) * Mary Jane - Jessica Anya Blau * Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell * All the Leaves are Brown (Mommas & Poppas ) * You Could Make This Place Beautiful - Maggie Smith

For my last Saturday chronology-of-my-life photo, one of me that basically capturing how I think of myself these days…

My tiny review of “A Complete Unknown”: Electric, fun, funny, cool. The Chalameleon transforms into young Dylan in this remake of “8 Mile.” Norton’s Seeger is beatific. Barbaro’s Baez is smoldering. But what steals the show is the only thing this has ever been about: the music.

(A final) short story + hand-drawn ilo: A Leap at the Wheel After staying up all night on New Year's Eve, I fell asleep at the wheel, My car drifted off the road and then down an underpass, putting me and my friend underneath the bridge that held the highway we'd just been on.

I have kept a personal journal since Dec. 29, 1986. The first sentence of my first entry on that day was: “Four days after Christmas, I’m now with my Grandmother (Henneberger) in Annapolis, and going down my list of people I should see during my Christmas vacation.”

Latest write for work… amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/12/30…

Last daily fact about me as I stop this yearlong personal (over)sharing experiment: I find myself (my stories, dreams, opinions, thoughts) interesting. Thanks for indulging me. I’m gonna take a break from any daily sharing in 2025 and spend the time on some other pursuits.

Latest thing written for work; maybe helpful/inspiring to you? cnn.com/2025/01/04/hea…

Made my podcast debut yesterday on CNN's "5 Good Things" (I'm at minute 9:35)... cnn.com/audio/podcasts…

Ironic sharing of my latest contribution to work, given that it requires looking at a screen. (Just suggesting not do it while with your child.) A parenting essay... cnn.com/2025/01/16/hea…

My latest write... cnn.com/2025/01/27/tra…

Never gets old: cnn.com/2016/02/01/hea…