Every parent of a sick child wants to do whatever possible to make the child feel better. But most cold- and flu-like illnesses in children are caused by viruses, which will be cured by the child’s own immune system.

We have a great wine weekend coming up in Santa Cruz.

Noah Lee Carter was born to Heidi and Jared Carter of Boulder Creek at 8:14 p.m. Dec. 6, 2010, at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center. Noah weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces.

Friday, Jan. 7

• Isabel Jade Beverly was born to Katherine Emilia and Nathan John Beverly of Ben Lomond at 6:14 p.m. Dec. 14, 2010. She weighed 3 pounds, 8 ounces at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz.

Rotary Club of San Lorenzo Valley

Like every other child, I wasn’t able to contain myself as Christmas grew nigh. To thwart my brothers’ and my enthusiasm, my mother and father adopted the extraordinarily irritating habit of not putting anything under the tree until after we went to bed Christmas Eve. That meant no slack-jawed gazing at the presents, no rattling the innards to discern the contents, nor peering through them with the X-ray glasses ordered from the back of Fantastic Four comic books.

Every year for the past few years, in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, I’ve enjoyed a very special duty. My mail carrier brings me all the letters that local children write to Santa Claus.