As I sit down to write this column, I felt it was necessary to paint a picture of how this whole column thing works.

Normally, my weekly installment is prepared while sitting in my office at the Times-Journal positioned at the front of the newsroom.

Inside there, I hope and pray for a topic to come to me and then hope and pray for the ability to combine the proper words — and enough of them — in the proper order to fill the allotted space each week.

This week though, with the holidays in full swing, I am writing this sitting in my parent’s dining room in Baldwin County, wearing a Santa hat. That’s right, a Santa hat.

Why, you may ask? Well. Why not?

As I look around the dining room, I am once again amazed at how Christmas evolves the older you get.

Without any children yet, I have not had the blessed opportunity to get up at 4 a.m. with the little ones wanting to rip open gifts under the tree.

So, without any grandchildren yet, Christmas with my family has usually started shortly after 9 a.m. with a cup of coffee, a glance at the newspaper, a small breakfast and exchange of gifts.

At my age, and the age of my sister and my parents, no longer are we asking for the latest crazed item. Instead, the items exchanged this morning ranged from those that had a useful purpose to those that have no practical purpose whatsoever.

That is unless you can think of a practical use for a marshmallow shooter. Apparently my mother found no humor in my father and I shooting marshmallows from one side of the house to the other into a cup of hot chocolate. Who knew?

Last week, I asked each of those in the newsroom to write their weekly column in the form of a letter to Santa. This week, I have asked they write one in the form of a New Year’s resolution.

Mine will be quite short and simple.

I hope to continue having fun in what I have chosen as my career — community newspapers. I hope to continue to make a difference in the lives of others in the way we cover our community and those we cover.

May all of you have a blessed final week of 2010 and a fantastic beginning to 2011.