‘Tis the season to give thanks. As we wrap up 2007 in a flurry of holiday happenings we may want to pause and reflect on how important it is to show gratitude and appreciation to our customers. The act of thanking our customers is not only courteous, but it has also proven to be an effective method to strengthen customer relations and retain our customer base.

I tried to donate blood last week, and the blood center turned me down. They claimed that my iron, while healthy, was one degree too low for their exacting standards. But I think there was another reason.

Christmas is the season of giving. Here are some things the Napa Valley has given me:

Persimmon trees seem to be about the most reliably healthy, vigorous, and long-lived fruit trees in the Napa region. The abundant fruit can be a nuisance, but it provides a festive show of color in late fall, long after the beautiful autumn leaves of the persimmon have fallen.

2007 has been, without question, a fascinating year. Our American culture has become so complex--for better or for worse--that I find it difficult to isolate the facts, movements and nuances of a simple story of the year in technology terms.

Each week during the year local Realtors and Realtor affiliates meet to exchange information on homes for sale, listen to a guest speaker and then head out to see new properties on the market.

One of my secret passions in wine is Sherry, that richly burnished, usually sweet dessert wine that has a lot of uses that most Americans know nothing about.

NEWS ITEM: Olfaction, the act or process of smelling, is a dog’s primary special sense. A dog’s sense of smell is said to be a thousand times more sensitive than that of a human. In fact, a dog has more than 220 million olfactory receptors in its nose, while a human has a piddling 5 million. Because of this keen sense of smell, dogs are able to seek out everything from forensic cadaver material to disaster survivors to illegal drugs — and now — fine wine.

In late November of this year Mariam Hansen, past president of the St. Helena Historical Society, sent me an e-mail containing some kind words on my recent story of an interview with the Valley’s ex-major leaguer, Dario Lodigiani, a fine man and friend.

On this special evening, our children climb into their warm beds and find it difficult to sleep while they await the arrival of Santa Claus and the treasures he will leave under their Christmas trees. When sleep finally does come, the magic begins.

Lake Davis will always hold a special place in my memory.

Some wines are difficult to pronounce so Latitude Beverage Company decided to phonetically spell its new brand on the label — Ku De Ta (to save you time in thinking about it — it’s coup d’état).

Not to put a damper on anyone’s holiday dreams, but Napa will again not have a white Christmas. This is from the National Weather Service.

A few years ago, when I was having central heating installed in my house, the serviceman said, “Well, you have done something right here.” He was referring to my many houseplants, all in different rooms. I knew that I liked the look of plants around the house, but he was thinking about the health benefits, namely the cleaning of the air and the addition of oxygen.

It depends on the size of the probate

Edwards is a reason to be afraid