The stockings were made and decorated by two Saratoga High School seniors, Teresa Lee and Laura Phan. Lee is the head of the junior auxiliary at the hospital, and Phan is also a teen leader, coordinating the volunteer work teens tend to at the hospital.

The girls have been working on the stockings since last summer. The project was suggested by the volunteers as a way to make a baby's first Christmas special and to give the families a keepsake to take home with their new babies. Also helping to craft stockings were members of the adult auxiliary.

Some 63 stockings were made. On Christmas Day some of the babies in the intensive care units were wrapped in the stockings, too. Headed-for-home babies were photographed in the stockings upon their dismissal from the hospital and parents took them home to hang on the mantel. The stockings, you understand, not the babies.

Another Saratoga teen, Sean Tsao, also a senior at SHS, is active at Good Sam, too. He coordinates the teens who perform regularly for patients. Tsao brings a group of six to eight students every other month to play and sing for patients in the skilled nursing or behavioral health units, those patients with longer hospital stays.

Los Gatan Noriko Iwamoto, a senior auxiliary member, likewise heads up musical groups to entertain patients. Iwamoto is a violist who has played for more than 50 years and has also taught viola.

SOLSTICE HOLIDAY PARTY: The Swami Beyondanada was there, as well as the three tenors. This was the Curtis Wrights' 19th annual holiday celebration. Playing right into the hosts' hands, the party this year fell exactly on the night of the solstice. Some 80 merrymakers assembled to share the season.

Hosts were newly elected Monte Sereno City Council member Wright and wife Jeanine Bugh. Guests ranged from CEOs to the jobless, from local politicians to international artists. A wassail bowl and wassailing songs struck a celebratory opening note. There was an irreverent holiday blessing by the Swami Beyondanada (humorist Steve Baeherman).

The Night Before Christmas was rendered by Steve Jackson, enhanced by audience participation, and the three tenors—Phil Stephens, Mark Wallace and Joe Harakal—sang. Likewise, Kathleen Murphy launched an inimitable version of "Santa Baby."

Christmas crackers, an English tradition, revealed hats, jokes and prizes. A medley of Monte Sereno mayors was in attendance—present mayor Dave Baxter and former mayors Suzanne Jackson, Jack Lucas and Barbara Nesbet. And a president was present: Ron Lykins, president elect of the Los Gatos Rotary and his wife, Joan Perry.

Famed artist Thomas Kinkade appeared, as did locally famed pharmacist Bob Kirkendall. Members of the Los Gatos Tuesday Night Yoga Group and Los Gatos Mountain Biking Club showed up, too.

Not to be outshone by the guests were the candles lit for the solstice ceremony, a serious sharing of personal fulfillment or failings in the past year with heartfelt wishes for the coming year, a fit ending for a chock-full evening.

BELIZE, PULEEZ: Saratogans Judy and Frank Homen were among five finalists chosen from thousands of entries in the "Escape With Your Perfect Mate" contest offered by Nestle Coffee-Mate. The winner gets an all-expenses-paid trip to Belize. The finalists' stories are on the Coffee-Mate website (www,coffee-mate.com) until Jan. 15.

From that Internet vantage point the public will decide on the most deserving couple. The story with the most votes after 30 days wins the trip to Belize. The Homens are hoping that with your help, their dream of going to Belize may be realized.

SENIOR CENTER DANCES: Senior center dances at the neighborhood center in Los Gatos are held quarterly and there is no set date—it depends on when the band, Nob Hill Sounds, is available. The next dance is scheduled for Jan. 22 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the neighborhood center. The very popular band plays a varied mix of music.

FUNDING NEW NURSING FACULTY POST: The Community Hospital of Los Gatos helped fund a new faculty position in the school of nursing at San José State University recently by presenting a check for $36,000 to the school. An upsurge in enrollment for the coming year necessitated the faculty increase, and the hospital came to the rescue.

Officially presenting the gift were Dan Doore, the hospital's CEO, and Barbara VanAmburg, chief nursing officer. Accepting for the university were Dr. Michael Ego, dean of the college of applied science and arts, and Dr. Jayne Cohen, director of the school of nursing.

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