*The usual routine on Christmas Day is movie and Chinese food. That was the plan again this year, too. But our two Chinese restaurants of choice were closed Sunday. Amazing. We wound up in - of all places - Ruby Tuesday (no, not Ruby Foo) and it was just fine.

*This year's movie, by the way, was "Young Adult" with Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt. As has been noted elsewhere, Theron's character may be the most unlikeable comedic heroine in Hollywood history. But don't let that scare you. Good movie, excellent performances.

*Another front-line National Hockey League player suffered a concussion this week (Sean Weber of Nashville). The league should be and is concerned about this rash of concussions, starting with the one still impacting the game's No. 1 draw, Sidney Crosby of Pittsburgh. Lots of smart minds trying to figure out what to do. No easy answers, but I'd start by widening the rink. Players are too big for today's ice surface and that means less skating and more collisions. It probably won't happen though, because widening the ice will mean eliminating a couple of rows of prime seats, thus cutting revenue.

*If you have children and grandchildren who live far from home and you're still not "visiting" them on Skype, do yourself a favor and make the connection. (Oh, it does help if you have a computer.)

*This is the last week of the year, unless you're bookkeeping as we do at Journal Register Company and other businesses, in which case it's the first week of the first period (not month) of 2012. It's known as 4-4-5 accounting, which creates 13 weeks in each quarter.

*We'll get our share of snow this winter, no doubt. But for those of us who don't care for snow, look at it this way: It's nearly the end of the December and we haven't had any yet (save for that freak storm in October). Each day without snow is another day closer to spring.