While this column generally discusses politics or national and world affairs, for some reason I seem to get a significant response when I write about young Robert, now ten and a half years old and in fifth grade.

As Christmas approaches, Robert, while no longer a believer in Santa Claus, has of course thoughtfully provided me with a list of possible presents. I was struck by the difference between what he wants and what I put on my Christmas list in medieval times when I was a boy. While Robert's request for a new bicycle is similar to something I would have wanted, his list also includes such things as an iPod, a digital camera and numerous video games. Of course, as numerous parents have found out, the upside of this interest in technology is that Robert is the designated repair person in our household when one of our newfangled gadgets break down.

According to his teachers at this week's parent teacher conference, Robert is doing very well is school. And he has had some successes this year - being elected to the student council and finishing second in a spelling bee that included seventh and eighth graders. But of more general interest and similar to the Christmas list experience, I am struck with the differences in technology in education today. I am not necessarily sure that Robert is learning more material in school than I did (the nuns in my Catholic grammar school actually taught a great deal in their stern way), but he certainly uses modern technology extensively. For example, he will frequently type his written work at home and email the assignment to me at work if I need to check what he has done. He also will be doing a PowerPoint presentation to his class for a project on Latin America. In rather sharp contrast, I learned to type as a senior in high school (in truth, one of the more useful courses I have ever taken).

Since the lad has started to take Spanish in school this year, we will be making our annual European trip to Spain this year during his spring break in March. We went to Rome last year, Paris before that and London before that. We will likely travel to Madrid, Seville and Grenada this year. These trips, which I deliberately keep as relatively low-budget excursions (we stay in modest hotels and generally use public transportation), have been quite successful, both in introducing the lad to different cultures and as bonding experiences.

Robert is quite protective of me in certain ways. He is always nagging me about health issues and also takes considerable interest in young ladies whom I may be dating. He is generally tolerant of the idea that Dad has an adult life, and gets along well with women to whom he is introduced, most of whom make it a point to fawn all over him. Still, he rather carefully, and indeed critically, checks the ladies out, once informing me that he didn't think I had enough in common with a particular woman.

Robert and I will be putting up the Christmas tree this weekend, and of course we will be reminded of Maureen, whom we very much miss and mourn to this day. Still, I cannot help believe that she would be very proud that her son shows ever