Christmas Eve

This year I had one of my best Christmas Eve dinners ever. Maybe it's because it unfolded in such a leisurely fashion--a little eating, a little dancing and listening to music, a little nibbling, a little conversation. And repeat. Watching the sunset, admiring the ring around the moon. We started about 4 p.m., shucking five dozen kumamoto oysters and watching the light fade over the horizon as we sipped a 1996 Fleury Champagne followed by a 2004 Muscadet. Bruschetta was involved too, lavished with olive oil, ricotta cheese and fresh roasted red bell peppers.

Amazon is apologizing for a prolonged disruption last week that affected Netflix and other companies that use the e-commerce giant's cloud-computing services. "We want to apologize," Amazon said in a statement posted on its website. "We know how critical our services are to our customers' businesses, and we know this disruption came at an inopportune time for some of our customers. We will do everything we can to learn from this event and use it to drive further improvement. " In its lengthy apology and summary of events, Seattle-based Amazon said that the service disruption began on Dec. 24 at an East Coast data center and affected its Elastic Load Balancing Service.

So you didn't make it out of town for the holidays this year, and the family didn't come to you, either; this is your golden opportunity to take advantage of that grandest of traditions, the Christmas Eve drink. Just about everything except bars will be closed, but you'll find plenty of company there, making merry, maybe even caroling. At the very least, you can give yourself the present of a good stiff drink. The Tap Room at the Langham Huntington Just because you're drinking alone on Christmas Eve doesn't mean you can't do it with class.

WASHINGTON - A former neighbor of the Webster, N.Y., sniper who killed two volunteer firefighters on Christmas Eve illegally bought the guns used in the killing, federal authorities charged Friday. Dawn M. Nguyen, 24, of Greece, N.Y., was charged in federal court with acting as a straw purchaser for William Spengler, who as a felon could not legally buy guns for himself. Spengler was convicted of killing his grandmother in 1980. Nguyen also faces state felony charges on allegations of falsifying business records.

Today is Christmas Eve. Among the agencies affected: Mail: Most post offices will be open until noon and mail will be delivered. Banks: Most banks and savings and loan institutions will be open. Courts: All courts will be closed. Schools: Most public schools in Los Angeles County--including those in the Los Angeles Unified School District--will be closed until Jan. 4. Government: All federal, state, county and municipal offices--except those providing emergency services--will be closed.

For six hours on Christmas Eve, more than 40 musical groups representing the diversity of Los Angeles will host a free (even parking!) alfresco performance at the Music Center downtown. That should warm the cold, tuneless heart of any Grinch. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. 3-6 p.m. Fri. Free. lacountyarts.org .

A six-hour-old baby girl was nicknamed "Noel" by Los Angeles firefighters after she was handed to them by her mother on Christmas Eve. The baby's mother brought the child to Los Angeles Fire Department Station 46 near the Coliseum about 3 p.m. Friday under a state law that allows new mothers to relinquish babies without facing abandonment charges, according to department spokesman Erik Scott. The baby and mother were examined at the station and found to be in good health, he said.

The swamped malls, crowded parking lots and frantic delivery companies say it all: Christmas crunch time is here for the two-thirds of Americans who still haven't finished their holiday shopping. That's 132 million people trying to figure out last-minute gifts, according to a holiday poll conducted by Consumer Reports from Dec. 10 to 17. Of the respondents, 14% have yet to start shopping. And 17 million people - 9% of the total - will still be scrambling on Christmas Eve. So far, the average American has spent $340 on presents.

Stocks continued their slide in a shortened Christmas Eve trading session as hope dimmed that Washington would fix the fiscal cliff before year's end. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 38 points, or 0.3%, to 13,152 shortly after the opening bell on Wall Street. Volumes were expected to be light in the holiday session. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 4 points, or 0.3%, to 1,426. The technology-heavy Nasdaq was down 9 points, or 0.3%, to 3,012. After Speaker John Boehner's "Plan B" flopped in the U.S. House, investors have become more pessimistic about the chances that Congress and President Obama would resolve the so-called fiscal cliff by Dec. 31. Major U.S. indexes fell about 1% Friday.

Probably the defining moment over our holidays was when the little guy accidentally ker-plunked his Silly Putty in his sister's bowl of chili, causing a minor international incident. You might've heard her shrieks at your house, no matter where you live. This shrieking was followed by his mother's stern admonition that the little guy wash the Silly Putty thoroughly, lest the dog think it an hors d'oeuvre and we wind up spending Christmas night and $1,200 at the emergency pet clinic, waiting for it to clear his colon.

Shoppers waylaid by "fiscal cliff" fears and winter storms spent sparingly in the months before Christmas, according to new data, but retailers are still holding out for a post-holiday bump. From Oct. 28 through Dec. 24, sales of items such as clothing, home goods and electronics rose 0.7% compared with the same period last year, according to the MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse report. In 2011, spending rose 2%, more than double this year's pace. The last two months' performance, which also includes online sales, was the worst since 2008, according to the report.

While the holiday theme song for about 12 million unemployed people this year might as well have been “All I want for Christmas is a job,” that has never stopped the young and/or clueless from taking to Twitter with their own, less sympathetic ballad: “All I wanted for Christmas was an iPad.” And when they tweet of disappointment for not getting the latest, expensive Apple gadget or (cue “The Price Is Right” voice) “A NEW CAAAR!”, they are often met with unexpected, widespread hatred in return.

This year I had one of my best Christmas Eve dinners ever. Maybe it's because it unfolded in such a leisurely fashion--a little eating, a little dancing and listening to music, a little nibbling, a little conversation. And repeat. Watching the sunset, admiring the ring around the moon. We started about 4 p.m., shucking five dozen kumamoto oysters and watching the light fade over the horizon as we sipped a 1996 Fleury Champagne followed by a 2004 Muscadet. Bruschetta was involved too, lavished with olive oil, ricotta cheese and fresh roasted red bell peppers.

They made their way from Watts, San Pedro, Alhambra - entire families huddling in the rain overnight and tucking their kids in on cardboard. The backbeats of downtown Los Angeles' skid row caroled them through Christmas Eve. By early Christmas morning, hundreds of homeless and near-homeless families had crowded into a line that wrapped around the Midnight Mission's block. Many had camped out since 11 a.m. Monday to make sure their kids would get toys, meet Santa Claus and celebrate Christmas in a way that wouldn't otherwise be possible.

Stocks continued their slide in a shortened Christmas Eve trading session as hope dimmed that Washington would fix the fiscal cliff before year's end. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 38 points, or 0.3%, to 13,152 shortly after the opening bell on Wall Street. Volumes were expected to be light in the holiday session. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 4 points, or 0.3%, to 1,426. The technology-heavy Nasdaq was down 9 points, or 0.3%, to 3,012. After Speaker John Boehner's "Plan B" flopped in the U.S. House, investors have become more pessimistic about the chances that Congress and President Obama would resolve the so-called fiscal cliff by Dec. 31. Major U.S. indexes fell about 1% Friday.

Two lesbians, a man with Down's syndrome and a Jewish couple walk into a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve. Sounds like the setup to a joke, yes? Nope. This is my family, doing what we've done for a decade. Separated by differing philosophies, as well as locations, we have no other tradition. I don't know who got the idea to spend Dec. 24 eating egg rolls and mu shu pork at a Chinese restaurant in Ventura. Doesn't matter. Regardless of what political and social arguments have ensued during the year, we all drive or fly in to go to the restaurant and the big round table by the fish tank.

It was our first Christmas together, and I was determined that it would be special. We had booked a hotel room for the holidays on the sand at Pismo Beach. Jim, my new love, had Mark Harmon hair and a Richard Gere smile. He watched BBC News, read (actual) books and regularly finished the Sunday Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle - in pen. He was also a no-nonsense merchant marine, so I was resolved that there would be nothing too frilly about this celebration. I spent the weeks before the holidays scouring thrift shops for inexpensive lights, garland and ornaments - with no emotional baggage - all of which could be discarded when Christmas was done.

Immanuel Presbyterian Church presents its 26th anniversary season of Music at Immanuel concerts that includes the traditional performance of part one of Handel's "Messiah" on Christmas Eve at 10:30 p.m. The church is located at 3300 Wilshire Blvd. Information: (213) 389-3191, Ext. 103.

OK, it's Christmas Eve, so it's time to smile. And what better way to smile than watching a child receive an amazing present from a 6-foot-3, 257-pound Santa Claus? The Arizona Cardinals are near the end of a disappointing 5-10 season, but that didn't stop linebacker Sam Acho from brightening the day of one young Cardinals fan. Spotting a kid in the front row of the stand by the Arizona sideline, Acho walks over and hands the young boy one of his gloves. As you can see from the video above, the kid's reaction is one of amazement, as he high-fives Acho and then runs up to his mom to show her the best present ever.

Architect Ana Henton is founder of MASS Architecture Design Build and has designed award-winning restaurants, cafes and shops such as Lukshon in Culver City, Intelligentsia Venice, C + M at LACMA, Breadbar in Century City and Silverlake Wine.  One of her next projects is the revival of the Helms Bakery by Sherry Yard and Sang Yoon in a 10,000-square-foot space in the Helms complex in Culver City.  We caught up with Henton about...