When I was packing clothes and tools and nutritional blobs, I almost left without a book. The family wasn’t going to be joining me, and I rarely see a movie these days that doesn’t star Julie Andrews or come from Pixar, so I was looking forward to settling in at the hotel and consuming something with guns and swearing and car chases and whoopie-makin’. Unfortunately, I arrived at my hotel Saturday night to find that my room’s television was malfunctioning. If I hadn’t brought the book, Id’ve been stuck with War of the Worlds (the Tom Cruise version) on network television, with

I was up at 4:28 a.m. on Sunday, two minutes ahead of my alarm clock. I got dressed, slammed some juice, joyfully spalmed up , washed my hands, and headed to the Doubletree to meet the morning rollout squad. Thirty of forty of us were assembled out front, including one intrepid rider on an Xtracycle, much to my delight.

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With that bike, my friend, Margie Casey, and I ruled our block. "My very best Christmas gift was a purple Schwinn bicycle. While the holiday season is about more than just gift giving and receiving, those times spent by the Christmas tree or the menorah opening presents painstakingly selected by loved ones make for some of our fondest memories. Filled with the holiday spirit, the Santa Monica Daily Press wanted to reach out to locals to find out what was their most memorable gift during childhood. "Using the definition of child broadly, the best gift I can remember was when I was 15. Who can forget those anxious days before the start of Chanukah and Christmas when visions of a bicycle, Cabbage Patch Kid or Easy Bake Oven danced in our heads. When I was about 7, and after much pestering of my parents, I received an oddly moving box under the tree. • Jean McNeil Wyner, Community liaison for Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center & Orthopaedic Hospital. I opened it and found what looked like a little bear cub.

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