Revolutions don’t die; people grow tired.

Santa Claus is as real as the fact that this time next year, covid won’t be a problem.

There are a couple of simple rules that I try to follow when participating in the ritual of gift-giving and receiving.

Do you know the history of the White Elephant?

Oh, the storied tales of White Elephant Christmases gone by! The triumph and defeat! The never-ending variations on the tradition from family to family, office to office! I am giddy just thinking about it. But first, let me back up for those who know not of the White Elephant.

On my 33rd birthday, after hiding among the people and jobs, I realized that I wasn’t a mutant or a super hero.  I wasn’t a part of a team. There was no one else on the entire planet with powers and life wasn’t a comic book.  So I embraced my secret identity - Don Hall, average big-mouth white guy - and did my best to pretend I was normal.  Just like everybody else.

He was born of a non-virgin non-Mary.

He was born a month prematurely, disrupting his mother’s plans for a large feast of Italian beef sandwiches, dipped, with all the fixings.

Do you know the history of the White Elephant?

Oh, the storied tales of White Elephant Christmases gone by! The triumph and defeat! The never-ending variations on the tradition from family to family, office to office! I am giddy just thinking about it. But first, let me back up for those who know not of the White Elephant.