I WRITE my first column for 2023 at Heavenly Village in Lake Tahoe while on Christmas skiing holiday with my six grandchildren, ages 3 to 10, two pairs of parents, and a pair of grandparents. While Lolo and Momsie (Lola) are ambulant and don't require wheelchairs, we will ride the downhill runs — where Lolo is known as the 'killer of the kiddie slopes,' not risking our osteoporotic bones to serious fractures.

As tradition dictates, one uses the year-end to review one's failures and successes against last year's resolutions, embarking on a new list for the coming year. As I wrote in 2021, toward the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, 'I claim expertise at crafting beautiful and well-thought-out year-end resolutions — on weight loss, smoking, alcohol intake and diet — that I adopt seriously for a day or two and promptly discard. Thus, I save myself from undergoing similar experiences of friends who forge their own lists, religiously sticking to them for weeks and even months while putting themselves under tremendous stress, anxiety and panic attacks, before surrendering to the inevitable. A lesson well learned every year is to avoid the same mistake. Do a list, if you must, but give them up after a day.'