Roberto Jesus Ortiz, a 7-pound 10-ounce boy, was born to Elizabeth Anne and Jesus Ortiz-Ramirez of Ben Lomond at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz. He was born at 6:54 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2014.

Each Monday morning from my kitchen window I would watch Anna, my mother-in-law carry her tattered, oilcloth-lined laundry basket from her house through to her backyard. Setting her basket on a tree stump next to the clothesline, Anna would begin her weekly ritual.

- Submit Datebook items to [email protected] or drop off press releases or photos at 5215 Scotts Valley Drive, Ste. F, Scotts Valley 95066. Deadline is 5 p.m. Tuesday. Entries are subject to editing, and publication is not guaranteed.

Mason Maynard Brackett, a 7-pound 3-ounce boy, was born to Amanda Colleen (Krebs) and Joshua John Brackett of Scotts Valley at Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center in Santa Cruz. He was born at 9:03 a.m. on December 19, 2014.

Wow, what a year.

“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” – Oprah Winfrey

- Submit Datebook items to [email protected] or drop off press releases or photos at 5215 Scotts Valley Drive, Ste. F, Scotts Valley 95066. Deadline is 5 p.m. Tuesday. Entries are subject to editing, and publication is not guaranteed.

A week or two ago, a Scotts Valley family received an early Christmas present — a couch, chair and love seat. It was an anonymous gift. A Good Samaritan you ask? Afraid not. The furniture was beaten up and useless, deposited on the property by someone too lazy or cheap, but likely both, to drive to the dump.