The night before Christmas, the available males—yours truly, my brother Rob, and my son Caleb—were busy with one of those time-honored pre-holiday rituals: taking care of a gift for which, as the package chillingly announces, "some assembly [is] required." My granddaughter Stasia wanted one of those battery-powered vehicles, and inside a very large box in the basement was a pink, off-road car... well, the parts for one. After she was asleep, hopefully with visions of sugar plums dancing in her head, the men did what men have to do, and a couple of hours later, we'd finished the job. Christmas morning, Stasia was beyond delighted, and the day after Christmas, with a little warmth in the air, she took her vehicle out for an off-road spin in the backyard. I think it more than met her expectations.