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9:00 AM EST, Wednesday, December 24, 2008: My daughter came home last night with 27 ugly viruses on her laptop. Daddy fortunately had kept a clone of her original disk. Symantec cleaned them out.

L.L. Bean delivered Winnie's new doggie mattress. The old one was old and lumpy. It took only 10 minutes to put the new mattress inside the old cover. Now Winnie had a nice new bed, and a choice.

Yes, she chose the old, lumpy bed.

Susan ordered a swag for the mantelpiece. I know nothing about swags. But Websters does. It's a "a suspended wreath, garland, drapery, or the like, fastened up at or near each end and hanging down in the middle." I was sent to pick up the swag from the nursery. But it closed at noon and doesn't re-open until March. Our mantelpiece is now sadly swagless.

Susan ordered croissants from Williams Sonoma. They come frozen. You pop them into the oven. In ten minutes you have delicious hot croissants. Unfortunately, Williams Sonoma forgot the dry ice. The croissant dough melted and went bad. The result was a gooey, stinky mess. Williams Sonoma asked for proof. Here's Michael photo.

Our local handyman brought our four foot Christmas tree. It looks a bit funny in the living room with the high ceilings. But he assured me it was the last Christmas tree on planet Earth. He "installed" it and broke Susan's favorite vase. She now has a new favorite vase.

We're having an ice storm this morning. The trees will probably freeze up and break the power lines, putting us out of power for another six days. We only got our power back on four days ago. I've now ordered a backup generator. But, after the storm, backup generators are backordered. Once we do get a generator, there'll never be another ice storm (what with global warming, etc.) and we'll never need it. Maybe then we can sell it on eBay.

No one in the family had any money with Madoff and everyone is alive. There has already been one Madoff suicide.

Everyone is also healthy and happy to see each other. Today we're wrapping presents, cooking, gossiping, and playing a little tennis. Last night we watched Lewis Black, the comedian. We cried laughing.

I pray Christmas for all of us (that includes all my wonderful readers) will be as uneventful as ours has been so far.

We had enough events in 2008 to last us all a lifetime.

Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. See you next Monday.

This column is about my personal search for the perfect investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address is . You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no role in choosing the Google ads on this site. Thus I cannot endorse, though some look interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. Please note I'm not suggesting you do. That money, if there is any, may help pay Michael's business school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click here and here.