Best of 2018

This year of our Lord 2018 is coming to a close, and although we are approaching only the midway point of the 2018-19 NHL season, there is no reason we can't take a look at the best things that happened in the hockey world during the 2018 calendar year.

Everyone does top ten lists, but I say why limit yourself? Below are what I consider the top dozen things to happen in hockey this year, in chronological order because I don't mean to rank them first-best, second-best, etc. And please note, I'm focusing only on stuff that happened on the ice (no significant-other cyber bullying stories) and only on the good (even if your team lost one of the games I mention).

Surely the Humboldt Broncos tragedy was the biggest and most important hockey story of 2018, but it doesn't feel right putting it on a list that includes other stories, and it certainly doesn't belong on any list about "bests."

Anyway, here goes...

January 26-28:  All-Star Weekend

The NHL All-Star 3-on-3 Tourney Game was staged right here in my fair city, and a grand time was had by all. Although he came as a member of the New Jersey Devils, recent cancer survivor Brian Boyle received the loudest ovation of the weekend because we Tampa Bay fans still love him from when he played for our Lightning.

In the skills competition, Connor McDavid edged out Brayden Point for fastest skater, the rookie Brock Boeser edged out the veteran Boyle for most accurate shooter, and Alex Ovechkin torched the field for hardest shot.

In the tourney game itself, Nikita Kucherov had the most memorable highlight when he scored by faking out Braden Holtby, juking with his stick blade as if he was going to shoot but then doing nothing, just letting the puck slide through Holtby's five hole on its own momentum. Seeing as how he's a Bolt, the Tampa crowd serenaded him by cheering "Kuuuuuuuuch!"

However, the Pacific Division wound up winning the tourney game and Boeser took home MVP honors. Interestingly, the locker to which he was assigned in the locker room was the same one he used when he led North Dakota to the NCAA title at the 2016 Frozen Four.

February 20:  Kuch fools Holtby

Remember that Kucherov-beats-Holtby trickery I just described? Well, 23 days after the All-Star Game Kuch did it to him again, this time in a real game that the Lightning won 4-2.


February 22:   Olympic women's gold medal game
Speaking of my fair city, did I mention that the U.S. women's national team trained for the 2018 Olympics at a rink less than 15 minutes from my house? I dunno if that's why they finally got over the Olympics hump, but they did get over it.

Where the women's game is concerned, the US-Canada rivalry has been interesting. Entering this year, the Americans had won the World Championships four years in a row and seven of the last eight, yet the Canadians had won gold in the last four Olympics. Needless to say, when the two national squads met in the gold medal game at this year's Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, it meant a lot to each.

Team Canada took a 2-1 lead into the third period despite being outshot, and with goaltender Shannon Szabados playing so well, it looked like they might make it five Olympic golds in a row -- until Team USA's Monique Lamoureux scored with six minutes left to force overtime.

Both goalies stood their ground in the extra session, so the game went to a shootout -- in which Monique's twin sister, Jocelyne Lamoureux, cemented her place in history by scoring this beauty to win gold for the stars and stripes.


February 24-25:  Olympic men's gold medal game

Any doubt that I have a hockey problem was removed when I, a native Floridian who has never been to Europe, stayed up past 2:00 in the morning to watch Team Germany battle Team Russia the Olympic Athletes from Russia.

The NHL did not allow its players to participate in these Olympics, but the talent was still high-end as both teams included some former NHL players and current NHL prospects. Although the Russians included former Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Nikita Nesterov and former Lightning "property" Nikita Guzev, my love-the-underdog mindset kicked in and had me cheering for Germany as the night/morning wore on.

The Germans battled hard and came improbably close, rallying from behind and taking a 3-2 lead when Jonas Muller scored with 3:16 remaining in regulation. When Russia the OAR took a high-sticking penalty inside the final two minutes, giving Germany a power play for the duration, it appeared that a gold medal upset for the ages was about to occur.

However, those crafty Russkies with their backs against the wall had other ideas. Coach Oleg Znarok pulled the goalie for an extra skater, thus re-evening things at 5-on-5. And with 45 seconds left and very little net to shoot at, Guzev forced the game to overtime with a precision shot that pinballed off a defender's stick and into the goal over the arm of goaltender Danny aus den Birken.

15 minutes into the extra session Russia the OAR was on a power play when Gusev sent a perfect cross-ice pass to Minnesota Wild prospect Kirill Kaprizov, who one-timed it home for the winner.

March 21:  Crosby's redirect extraordinaire

Late in the second period of a game against Montreal, Sidney Crosby scored on this masterpiece that you have to see -- in slow motion -- to believe. He tapped a flying puck to himself from his forehand, and then backhanded it into the net with a baseball-like swing of the lumber, and did it so fast that you could never tell in real-time what exactly happened. Remember this bit of handiwork if you're feeling tempted to believe that the 31-year-old Crosby is no longer the best player in the game.

Aprill 11:  The White-out returns

Sensing that their team had a chance to do something in the playoffs, not just get there, Winnipeg's faithful dressed all in white and packed Bell MTS Place from floor to rafters. They were loud and raucous, and added an extra layer of juice to what are already the most intense playoffs in all of sports, and they were rewarded with their Jets winning Game One over Minnesota by a score of 3-2. That victory was secured when unheralded Joe Morrow scored on a long-distance blast late in the third, and the game highlights are here.

Plus, the postscript was good: The Jets made a deep run to the Western Conference Final by eliminating Minnesota in five and then knocking off top-seeded Nashville in a seven-game barnburner. It marked the most playoff success by any Winnipeg hockey team since the Jets 1.0 were playing in the WHA and winning Avco Cups back in the 1970's.

May 6:  Bolts oust Bruins

As Stanley Cup contenders go, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins were all-in and legit this spring. Although the two franchises had not met in the post-season since 2011, the Bruins seemed to be the Lightning's white whale because they had dominated the regular season series for several years, and therefore plenty of Tampa Bay observers, including yours truly, doubted whether our team would be able to get past the boys from Beantown. Fortunately for us, however, that's why they play the games.

Game Five faced off with the Lightning holding a 3-1 lead in the series. With less than seven minutes remaining in the second period, the game was tied at one and the Bolts were on a power play. That's when Kucherov and J.T. Miller began to cycle the puck between themselves in a circling, give-and-go sequence between the right face-off dot and the end boards. The sequence ended with Miller taking a feed from Kucherov and burying it into the net behind Tukka Rask for the game- and series-winning goal.

Since it was Boston that got eliminated, surely the rest of America (and maybe Canada too) was almost as happy as those of us in the Bay Area. Right?


May 7:  Caps eliminate Pens
Any talk of the Bruins being the Lightning's nemesis sounds absurd compared to how big a nemesis the Pittsburgh Penguins have been for the Washington Capitals. Or maybe I should say had been, seeing as how the team from DC finally got that Western PA monkey off its back one day after the Lightning jettisoned the Bruins.

Much ink has been spent over the years writing about how big of an issue the Pens have been for the Caps. I'm not going to recount that here, but if you really want to read about it you can go to the fifth section of this post that I published in June. Suffice it to say that on May 7, 2018, the Caps flipped history on its head a little more than five minutes into overtime in Game Six.

Alex Ovechkin collected a turnover, sprung Evgeny Kuznetsov on a breakaway, and Kuznetsov ended the series and discarded the two-time defending champs by scoring cleanly through Matt Murray's five hole. Kuzy then commenced his flapping-bird celebration. The Caps had finally cleared the second-round hurdle that had haunted them for years, and they were halfway to hockey's promised land.


June 7:  The Capitals win the Cup
One month to the day later, the Capitals reached that promised land by winning the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

Game Five started with the Caps holding a 3-1 series lead over Vegas, but when the third period started they were trailing 3-2 and Vegas had the momentum. Then, midway through the frame, Devante Smith-Pelly tied the game up when he kicked the puck to his stick and fired it home while falling. A few minutes later, the Caps grabbed the lead when Lars Eller slid the puck in after it had trickled past Marc-Andre Fleury in the crease.

Washington made their newfound 4-3 lead hold up the rest of they way, and the Cup was theirs. They skated with it 'round the ice, celebrated in the locker room, and then carried it out of the arena and directly onto the Vegas Strip. One of the best-earned adventures in the history of intoxication got underway.


November 24:  Patrik Laine's five-goal game
The 20-year-old Finn had scored six goals in the three games heading into the NHL's Thanksgiving break. In the first game after the break, he took five shots on net and every one of 'em went in, leading Winnipeg to an 8-4 victory over St. Louis. Laine's performance marked the first time in seven years that any player had scored five goals in a single NHL game -- and it made Winnipeg fan Christopher Haley very happy, as it means he will now be getting $50,000 per year over the next twenty years thanks to this contest.


December 4:  The 9-6 game
Coaches hate games like this and refer to them as "pond hockey," but there are quite a few fans -- and probably quite a few players -- who love them while also referring to them as "pond hockey." The Columbus Blue Jackets jumped out to a 4-1 lead, and then the Calgary Flames scored five times in the second period to take a 6-4 lead, and when all was said and done Calgary prevailed 9-6. Johnny Gaudreau led the way with a pair of goals and pair of assists, and the goaltenders might still be having nightmares.


November 29 to December 27:  Stammer on a tear
Just in case anyone was thinking Steven Stamkos is no longer one of the world's elite forwards, the Tampa Bay captain went on a tear in which he scored 15 goals in 13 games. Most of those goals were highlight-reel howitzers, and the Bolts' record across the 13 games was 12-0-1. Stamkos has potted 14 goals so far in December, which is a franchise record for goals by a single player in a single month, and there is still one more December game remaining before the calendar flips to 2019.

A Christmas Miracle

I published this post ten years ago and it feels right to do it  again:

My grandfather passed away two months ago.  

I have wanted to write a post about him ever since, and there are a thousand things I want to say in that post, yet it remains unwritten for one very unmovable reason:  I have no idea where or how to start saying those thousand things.  When a man lives 81 years, has 39 direct descendants, and impacts not only his family but countless other people as well, how can you sum up his life in a handful of paragraphs?  You can’t. 

But I do not have that problem when it comes to writing about Granddaddy and Christmas, after the way they converged three years ago. 

Granddaddy’s love of God, family, and country; his zeal when talking about those things to anybody with whom he came into contact; his faith in the perfectibility of man; his irrepressible Scotch-Irish mischief; his unsurpassed diligence in everything to which he set his mind or his hands – those qualities will all be written about in time, but for the purposes of this post, suffice it to say that in the last few years of his life they were cruelly stolen by Alzheimer’s disease. 

His mental sharpness started to dull about five years ago.  In 2005 his memory faded as well, and the fading was fast.  He carried on conversations with Nana without realizing it was her.  Remembering how she looked in their youth but not in the here and now, he said things like “I wonder when Peggy’s going to come home” while looking into her very eyes. 

When he and Nana arrived at our family’s 2005 Christmas Eve party, nobody expected to be recognized by him.  Because I did not want to confuse him by addressing him in a way that would suggest he was speaking to his grandson, and because I knew his recollections of battling the Nazis remained vivid, that night I simply called him “Corporal.” 

He asked if I was in the Army like he had been, and I told him I was not because of my diabetes. I told him that we nonetheless had some similarities, because just like him, my last name was Stanton and my blood carried Scotch-Irish genes.  He nodded and said it was good to meet me.  He said I should come around again sometime. 

Everyone at the party walked a tightrope, balancing holiday cheer on one hand with the sadness of loss on the other.  The man we loved, who had known each of us by name just a year earlier, had for all intents and purposes ceased to exist. 

But as the night started to grow long, something sparked inside Granddaddy’s mind.  When most of us were assembled in and around the kitchen, he “addressed the room” and said it was great that we were there.  He did not specifically acknowledge that we were all family; however, when he looked at my Aunt Sharon, the third of his five children, a glint appeared in his eyes and he spoke the word “daughter.” 

He and Nana stood on the driveway as the party wound down.  I stood there too, as did several others, hoping to give Nana some sense of normalcy.  But it turned out that our presence was not needed, for while Venus shone brightly like the Star of Bethlehem, Granddaddy came back as if by magic.  Looking up at the Milky Way, he spoke to Nana by name and said:  “Peggy, I’m trying to remember the night we got married.”  Some minutes later, when he said goodbye to each of us, his face bore a look of recognition and for that moment it no longer seemed that there was a stranger trapped in his body. 

As his wife of 59 years drove him back to the house they had called home for 53 years, they talked about their life and their family and it was as if the dementia had never been.  After finishing that 45-mile excursion from rural Hernando County to urban Tampa, they sat up late into the night conversing and reminiscing and sharing life’s small but inimitable joys.  They lay down in bed like they had done so many times through the years, and for that one holy night Granddaddy was Granddaddy again:  John Stanton, Jr., child of the Great Depression, survivor of the Battle of the Bulge, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, pastor, proud but humble, flawed but good.

When the sun rose, the dementia was back and my grandmother's husband, as she knew him, never returned.  But they had gotten that one last night together on Christmas Eve, and had gotten it after everyone assumed it was not possible.  As Nana said:  “That was my Christmas miracle.”

A Carol Born

When it comes to carols, I have always found “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” to be especially poignant (if you're not familiar with it, you can listen to it here.)

It did not begin as a song, but as a poem written on Christmas morning by America’s greatest poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, more than 150 Christmases ago. At that moment in time America was torn apart and battling itself in the Civil War – a war that still stands as the one in which more Americans died than in any other.

When dawn broke that morning, Longfellow was despondent. During the war his son Charles had been horrifically wounded when a bullet passed through part of his spine, leading to a long and excruciating recovery. And as if that wasn’t dark enough, his wife Frances had died as a result of burns sustained when her clothes were set on fire by dripping sealing wax, which she was melting with the intention of using it to preserve some of their daughter’s trimmed curls.

But despite that sorrowful backdrop, as Longfellow sat in his Massachusetts home on Christmas and heard the ringing of local church bells, his faith in divine promise started to stir and he was moved to put pen to paper. The resulting poem was transformed into a hymn nine years later, when John Baptiste Calkin composed the music to which it was set.

The poem’s words absolutely speak for themselves. Since some of them are excluded from the carol we normally hear this time of year, here they are in their entirety:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Winter Solstice

Here are some thoughts about the year’s coldest season on this, its first day:

I love how it begins with evergreen boughs on mantles, lighted trees in village squares, carols on the radio, and people knowing that life’s greatest joys come from giving rather than receiving.

I love its chilly mornings when fog clings to the surfaces of ponds.

I love sitting outside on those mornings drinking hot black coffee.

I love watching Sarah try to catch snowflakes on her tongue during our winter vacation.

I love driving across California’s High Sierra between snow drifts so deep they soar above cars and turn roadways into tunnels of white.

I love walking through Appalachian forests that are barren of leaves but laden with snow, and therefore have the appearance of black-and-white photos come to life.

And finally, I love that I can spend a whole day outside in Florida without feeling the need to shower every hour.

So for those who curse the cold: Remember that every season brings beauty, so long as we stop to notice it.

Sounds of the season (both good and bad)

Note: I first published this in 2014, and the only change I am making is noting that it has now been 68 years, not 64, since the recording of the version of "Sleigh Ride" that I link to. However, since I did put "Baby It's Cold Outside" on the "bad" list and this year there is suddenly a movement to ban it from the airwaves, I want to stress that I am not in favor of any ban, and to reiterate that I like the song -- my criticism is that it's not a Christmas song at all and therefore it bugs me that it has been considered one for so many years.

Christmas wouldn't be the same without Christmas music. Religious hymns, secular carols, bouncy kid's songs, fast tunes, slow tunes -- they all fill a role in enhancing our enjoyment of the season.

I know most people don't give a hoot what I think about Christmas music, but I'm going to tell you anyway. Below are my thoughts regarding my favorite versions of three of my favorite religious Christmas songs, and three of my favorite secular Christmas songs -- plus, my thoughts regarding three of my least favorite.

Fyi, I don't like using the word "secular" in this context because many people attach a negative connotation to it where Christmas is concerned. But in my opinion, it's possible to capture the spirit of the season without referencing God or the nativity. Anyway, here I go:

THE RELIGIOUS

"O Holy Night," Nat King Cole

Though this song was not played very much when I was a kid, it has become ubiquitous over the last 20 years as one big-voiced singer after another, from Michael Crawford to Celine Dion to Josh Groban, has recorded it and received major air time on North American radio stations.

But none of their versions holds a candle to the one recorded by Nat King Cole in 1960. His subtly rich, expertly deployed voice gives you goosebumps as he performs the soaring lyrics and makes you feel like you really are a shepherd watching your flock on that night two millennia ago. The background of the song, combined with the fact that Cole was singing it at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, adds an extra layer of significance.

In the 1840's a French priest asked a local wine merchant named Placide Cappeau to pen a Christmas poem. Cappeau delivered with a poem that has been variously titled "Minuit, chretiens" and "Cantique de Noel." A few years later the composer Adolphe Charles Adams set it to music, creating the heart of the hymn we know today, and I think it's worth nothing that Adams was Jewish.

A few years after that, a little-known American writer and abolitionist named John Sullivan Dwight translated the Cappeau/Adams hymn to English and brought it to our shores as "O Holy Night." During the Civil War it became popular in Union states because of a particular verse that is sometimes excluded from modern renditions: "Truly He taught us to love one another / His law is love and His gospel is peace / chains shall He break / for the slave is our brother / and in His name all oppression shall cease."

"Do You Hear What I Hear?," The Carpenters

When it comes to Karen and Richard Carpenter, mock them all you want for the vein-clogging sappiness of their pop songs. They deserve it. But the fact of the matter is that Karen's voice was resonant and she owned the middle octaves, singing them better than anyone else who achieved pop stardom in the 1970's. My heart thumps when I listen to her arching vocals on their 1978 rendition of this song, complemented by Richard's wonderfully executed accompaniment. On a side note, this song is surprisingly recent, having been written during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," The Carpenters

I have written about this one before, and rather than recount the whole story behind it again, I will simply refer you to that post. If you don't want to go to the link, I don't blame you -- so I'll give you the abridged version by saying that the words were penned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, as a poem during the Civil War, and subsequently set to music by John Baptiste Calkin.

Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? So does this: The best singing of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" was done by Karen Carpenter in 1978.

THE SECULAR

"Happy Holidays," Andy Williams

It's not Christmas until you hear this on the radio. In fact, in almost every single year, it happens to be the very first Christmas song I hear on the radio... He'll have a big fat pack upon his back / and lots of goodies for you and for me / so leave a peppermint stick for old Saint Nick / hangin' on the Christmas tree... Rat Packer Andy Williams belts it out so good that I don't even known if anyone else has released a single of "Happy Holdiays" -- but I do know there's no point in anyone else doing so!

"Sleigh Ride," Freddy Martin and His Orchestra

It was 68 years ago that Freddy Martin made this recording and 30 years ago that I heard it for the first time -- on a cassette tape purchased from a RadioShack in Sylva, North Carolina. Bouncing with energy and buoyed by the big bandish optimism of postwar America, it makes me smile and snap my fingers and feel a yuletide chill in the air, even if it's a 75-degree day in Florida. In other words, it is ideal.

"The Christmas Song," Nat King Cole

Mel Torme and Bob Wells wrote it in 1945. Everybody knows it, but not everybody knows its title, so it is sometimes referred to as "Merry Christmas to You" and sometimes as "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire."

From its line about "Jack Frost nipping at your nose" to its one about "kids from one to ninety-two" to its one about "tiny tots with their eyes all aglow," I daresay that no other song has lyrics which do as good a job capturing the manifold feelings of the Christmas season.

And, I dare ask why anyone has even bothered to record "The Christmans Song" after Nat King Cole did so? His rendering 15 years after the song was written remains, in my opinion, hands-down the best Christmas song of all time.

THE BAD

"Baby It's Cold Outside"

Actually, I kind of like this duet. It's catchy and cheeky, and since I'm not a prude, I am not offended by the persistence of the male who is represented in its vocals.

But can somebody please explain why it is considered a Christmas song? It has nothing to do with Christmas. It never mentions the holiday; and other than using the word "cold," it never mentions anything that's even related to the holiday. Calling this a Christmas song is kind of like calling "Summertime Blues" a Fourth of July song because, well, July is in the summer.

Listen to the lyrics. They are solely about a guy trying to get into a girl's pants. No matter how much she insists she doesn't want to stay for the night, he constantly pressures her to do so because it's cold outside. She explicitly says "the answer is no," and he retorts that "you'll freeze out there" and "what's the sense of hurting my pride?" At one point she actually says "what's in this drink?" When she worries about what gossipers will say, his response is that it would cause him "lifelong sorrow if you caught pneumonia and died." She calls him "very pushy" and he replies "I like to think of it as opportunistic."

Again, I'm not a prude, but seriously, what does this song have to do with Christmas? How come we only hear it this time of year, and only on the stations that switch to a 24/7 Christmas format? There is something amiss.

"Happy Xmas (War is Over)"

I have mixed emotions about putting this on my "least favorites" list. John Lennon was a genuine pacifist who meant no harm to anyone. I have no doubt that when he and Yoko crafted this Christmas song using the melody of the old English ballad "Skewball," they did so with golden hearts. It was meant as a Vietnam War protest, and I have no doubt that they believed lying down military arms in that part of the world would be good for mankind.

My problem is this: The blinders they wore when crafting the song were shared by millions in the West, and those blinders caused real life disaster for people in the Third World of Southeast Asia. Without American military might, the impoverished villagers of South Vietnam were left stranded without freedom and at the mercy of Ho Chi Minh's murderous tyranny.

Generations of people on the Indochina Peninsula had their futures destroyed and hopes crushed when America went the route that John, Yoko, and the other Sixties peaceniks preferred. Had the peaceniks trumpeted any concen for the real life fates of those people, the song "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" might make me smile. Instead it makes me sad.

"Santa Baby"

This is far and away the most repulsive, alleged Christmas song of all time... In a season that's about selflessness, giving, and spiritual redemption, this song is all about self-absorption, materialism, and spiritual vacuity... Rather than seeking peace, love, and harmony, the narrator demands "a yacht," "the deed to a platinum mine," and "decorations bought at Tiffany's"... For evidence that she belongs on the nice list, the only things she mentions are "all the fun that I've missed" and "all the fellas that I haven't kissed"... Yes, this is exactly how we should teach our children about the virtues and principles of the season. I know it was written as a novelty song, but I cringe every time I hear it.

In any event, there are only two days between today and Christmas. Be merry all weekend long.

That Christmas Feeling

I published this post eight years ago, when Sarah was a kindergartner and Parker was, like I said, "resting snugly in Erika's womb" ... Today Sarah is a little more than a semester away from being a high schooler, and Parker says he is ready to play competitive hockey ... She now knows the truth about Santa, and her TV tastes have graduated from children's programming to Riverdale (thank God she still goes to her church youth group on Wednesday evenings!) ... Meanwhile, he still believes in Santa and still loves looking for Dylan (our Elf on the Shelf) every morning ... I think I will grin every time I re-read this post, so I'm re-publishing it today as we all go barreling through the holiday season: 


As long as I can remember, I have spent the Thanksgiving-through-New-Year’s season feeling buoyant and hopeful. On December mornings like today’s, when the temperatures are below freezing and the grass is coated with frost, I have always found it easy to catch the Christmas spirit.

But even for people like me, the appreciation we feel for this time of year is increased many times over when we become parents. Watching our children’s faces light up with wonder, we remember how we felt at this time of year when we were kids. Surely, even the most jaded adult must have fond recollections of Christmas Past and hope that today’s tykes are enjoying Christmas Present.

When Sarah was two, I am pretty sure she remembered Christmas from when she was one, but I know she remembered it when she was three. That was the year we got a flat tire while driving to the annual Christmas Eve party for my extended family. It was dark and cloudy and we were stranded for some time on a rural road -- a circumstance that would usually lead to bad moods and quick tempers. But when the lights of an airplane tracking through the clouds became visible, I pointed to them and told Sarah it was Santa’s sleigh. Her face immediately lit up. She pointed at the lights and wiggled and shrieked to Erika: “Mommy! Mommy! It’s Santa! It’s Santa!” And a potentially bad experience was transformed into a golden moment that will never be forgotten.

Exactly one year later, when she was four, getting her to go to bed on Christmas Eve proved next to impossible. For what seemed like hours, she kept getting up every few minutes and running into our room, laughing and jumping and swearing that through her window she had just seen Santa’s sleigh in the sky. Then she started saying that she thought she heard reindeer on the roof. And she kept getting up and making these claims over and over and over again…

When she was five, we took her to Disney World on December 23^rd, and the Magic Kingdom was decked out in holiday splendor. After night fell, as we made our way down Main Street USA with Sarah on my shoulders, she broke into song and belted out “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” Then artificial snowflakes started to shower down, blown from the tops of the storefronts, and the day came to a picture-perfect end.

The next night saw more classic, Christmas Eve moments. Sarah claimed she saw Rudolph’s nose in the sky on our way home from the annual party. Before bed she made a trail of cookies in our driveway to lead the reindeer to our door. At the end was a marshmallow snowman cookie, along with a note on which she wrote: “Rudolph only.”

Finally, inside our home on her own small table by the tree, Sarah left milk and cookies, and an unfortunately broken candy cane, out for Santa. We disposed of the food and drink before she awoke, and Erika was sure to leave cookie crumbs on the plate next to the empty glass. Erika also composed a thank you note from Santa to Sarah. We had already turned this into a tradition, and Sarah reveled in it again.

Sarah is now six. For the third December in a row she is rising before the roosters every single morning, opening her Advent Box and finding where the Elf on the Shelf has moved to. She is smart as a whip and I did not expect her to still believe in Santa last year, but now it is a whole year later and she continues to believe.

We have always told her that Christmas is to commemorate the birth of Jesus, and is about giving rather than receiving, and she seems to get it. Two years ago, when we told her that after opening her gifts she had to choose one to give away to the poor, she countered by asking if she could give away ten of her old toys rather than one of her new ones.

When Sarah was born, we actually said that we would not even do the Santa thing, specifically to avoid the dreaded conversation in which we would have to admit (there’s no delicate way to put this) that we have been lying to her all these years. Then Christmas came and we did the Santa thing anyway, and although I have some reservations, I don’t have any regrets when I watch her enjoy herself. Her excitement heightens mine and Erika’s, and I am serene in my confidence that she will look back on these days with happiness. After all, one of my fondest memories of Christmas Past is of the year my parents broke the news to me that Santa is not real. The memory involves a chalkboard, but that is a story I will share another time, perhaps another year.

The bottom line is this: I love Christmas to begin with, but I love it even more because of my little girl. Erika and I can not wait to keep making new memories with her and her little sibling, who right now is resting snugly in Erika's womb.

Never Forget

Pearl Harbor Day is upon us, so let us recall what happened 77 years ago today. The day after the bombing, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Congress on December 8, 1941, to request a formal declaration of war. His speech was simulcast to the country at large via the radio. In it, he said:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our secretary of state a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack…

Yesterday the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Wake Island.

And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island…

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves…

Always will be remembered the character of this onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory…

With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounding determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.

Pearl Harbor was attacked because it was where the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet was headquartered. The bombing, which killed more than 2,400 people, began shortly before 8:00 on a Sunday morning.

Five of our eight battleships were sunk, the other three were badly damaged, and multiple other naval vessels were destroyed.

The majority of the American war planes based in Hawaii were destroyed as they sat on the ground.

In addition, most of the American air forces based in the Philippines were destroyed during the nighttime attack on that nation, which FDR also mentioned in his speech.

By crippling our Pacific defenses, the December 7th attack left us extremely vulnerable in the face of an aggressive enemy to our West – an enemy that had signaled its intent to rule the entire Pacific basin by subjugating other nations to its will.

This came at a time when we had not responded to the fact that Nazi Germany to our East had already declared war against us, had already brought most of Europe under its thumb, and had signaled its own intention to rule the world by way of an Aryan resurrection of the old Roman Empire.

Such circumstances would have spelled doom for the vast majority of countries throughout the course of history. With their foundations based on the accidents of ethnicity and geography, most countries would have simply surrendered; or, in a distinction without a difference, entered into “peace” negotiations under which they would have to accept the aggressor’s terms and after which the lives of their citizens would most certainly change for the worst.

But the United States is a nation based on ideals. Our foundation springs from the knowledge that there are things greater than us, things which are greater than the transient circumstances which exist on any given day. We have always found strength in the conviction that our nation exists to support and advance those greater things, to the benefit of people all over the world, and this sets the United States apart from all other nations in all other times.

Taking heed from FDR’s appeal to “righteous might,” reflecting what Abraham Lincoln earlier referred to as the “faith that right makes might,” the American people of 1941 summoned the invincible courage to rebuild and fight at the same time they were under fearsome siege. They did this despite the fact they were still suffering through an unprecedented economic depression that had started more than a decade before.

Let us pray that those qualities – that will to power and that unwavering belief in the sanctity of human freedom – have not been lost as new generations of Americans take the baton from the great ones which came before. For as has been said, those who forget the past will be forced to repeat it.

It would be shameful if history were to record that we squandered what was handed down to us by people like Larry Perry, and as a result we failed to transfer freedom’s blessings to our descendants... And since you probably don't know who Larry Perry is, I recommend you look here and find out.

The Real Saint Nick

History provides many examples of actual people who have, over time, become so melded into the popular imagination that we tend to forget they were real. Saint Nicholas is one of them.

Born sometime around 280 A.D. in the town of Patara, in what was then part of Greece but is now part of Turkey, Nicholas was the son of wealthy parents who died when he was young. Having been raised as a devoted Christian, he spent his life using his inheritance to help those in need, and in addition to his charity he became known for harboring great concern for children and sailors.

Down through history, one particular story about his generosity has persisted. In those days, women whose families could not pay a dowry were more likely to die as spinsters than to get married. It is said that when Nicholas learned of a poor man who was worried about his daughters’ fate because he lacked money for their dowries, Nicholas surreptitiously tossed gold into the man’s home through an open window, and the gold landed in stockings that were drying by the fire. Much later, this 1,700-year-old story inspired the modern tradition of hanging stockings by the chimney to receive gifts from Santa on Christmas Eve.

Nicholas became Bishop of Myra and was imprisoned during the anti-Christian persecutions carried out by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Based on the stories of his life, Catholic tradition considers him a patron saint of children, orphans, sailors, travelers, the wrongly imprisoned, and many other categories of people. Churches were constructed in his honor as early as the sixth century A.D. Today, his remains are buried in Bari, Italy.

For generations now, kids and adults alike have used the names Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, and Saint Nick interchangeably, without giving it a second thought. But there was an actual Saint Nicholas, a decent man who is obscured by commercial renderings of Christmas. We should not allow that fact to be forgotten, regardless of whether or not we are Catholic (and for the record, I am not).