This morning, we’re heading off for my eye surgery, and then we’re off to Connecticut to pick up Zinnia tomorrow and bring her home.

With any luck, I’ll get my new computer tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday.

The plan is to bring Zinnia to Bishop Maginn on Wednesday morning.

We’ll be maneuvering through and around frigid cold and snow, Zinnia will earn some spurs as a hardy Lab. Her introduction to Bedlam Farm will be chilly, in the single digits.

As I go, I wanted to ask for your help and support in giving the Mansion residents and the neediest refugee students some Christmas joy. I’m helping the Mansion brighten up their Christmas decorations, and I’d like to give Wal-Mart $50 gift cards to each one of the Mansion aides.

I’d also like to give some of the residents a small amount of money so they can purchase gifts for the aides or some of their friends.

This was a successful and much-appreciated Christmas plan for last year.

At Bishop Maginn, my Christmas plan is to ask Sue Silverstein and the other teachers to choose the neediest students and help them to get a small gift or give a gift to their parents.

A small amount of money will go a long way towards giving these people a happy Christmas.

It’s too complex for a Wish List and too personal, so I am asking for your support directly: via Paypal, [email protected], or by check, Jon Katz, Christmas Fund, P.O. Box 205 State Route 22, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

The Mansion Gift Card Christmas for the aides will cost $700, and I’m looking for between $500 and $700 for the Mansion Christmas – new decorations (the old ones are musty and decaying), some money for gifts or presents for the residents who are the neediest.

The Bishop Maginn money will do directly from me to the teachers and staff, they have the most intimate and personal knowledge of who its neediest.

To me, this is the true spirit of Christmas, giving, not just taking.

The holiday to me is not about discounts on TV’s and laptops, it’s about giving of oneself to others. Your help in celebrating this holiday in the spirit in which it was conceived and intended will be much appreciated. We can do a lot of good this Christmas.

So you can contribute this way: via Paypal, [email protected], or check, Jon Katz, Christmas Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Small donations are every but as welcome as big ones.

See you in a couple of days, as I restore and organize my somewhat interrupted life. I intend to come back better.