• When this baby's born, we'll name him Virtual
"Now that you're expecting," the e-mail read, you'll need to know a few things.

• Flying trees and kind strangers
Our Christmas tree leans against the wall like a tall, tired woman, one who's napping in spite of the finery we have dressed her in. She will remain a wallflower for two weeks or so, then we'll strip her of her finery and take her back to nature where her needles will carpet the forest instead of our hardwood floors. We'll treat her gently. As I will explain, she went through a lot to get here.

• 13 alerts when darling turns teen
The daughter of a friend is entering the choppy waters of adolescence. She just turned 13. He wonders how this teenage stuff works. "Any advice?" he asked my husband. "Anything I ought to know?"

• Momentarily unglued after being unplugged
GPS, cell phones, iPods, Blue Tooth, YouTube, caller ID, Facebook.