Christmas Gifts

At this time of year, the cliché "I couldn't think of a better gift" gets enough overplay to last a year, if not a lifetime. Still, it is pretty hard to think of children being returned to their fathers from difficult circumstances without getting at least a tad misty-eyed.

Merry Christmas to the Wichita, Kansas, father who was careless enough to leave his son in a parked and running truck. Fortunately, the someone who came along and snatched the truck before realizing the 10-year-old was in it told the kid to get out ... which he did before walking back to report to his dad that the truck was stolen.

And Merry Christmas to Dick Dekker, who had his daughter put in his care rather than social services. Laura, 14, had run away when told she was not going to be able to sail solo around the world. As he should, he's agreed to help her work through a court-ordered period of study and preparation before she — with his blessing — takes to see how she can sea.

And, finally, the veriest, merriest of Christmases to New Jerseyite David Goldman, who has spent five years without his son. [Earlier: Cooking Rights and Responsibilities] A Brazilian court has ordered the politically well connected step-family his ex-wife married into while still married to him to return Goldman his son, Sean.

Cliché alert: 'tis the season.