And now that the party is over, we realize the error of our decision. We have absolutely no inclination to take down Christmas decorations now. We are not in the mood and have even gone so far as to consider if it might be possible to simply leave them up until the next holiday season. After all, it is less than 10 months until Thanksgiving, so what would be so wrong with just leaving the Christmas decorations up? We could live with it. Instead of just having our Christmas wreath up until Easter, which we used to do, we could leave everything up.

We could have an entirely new contest entitled "I-left-last-year’s-Christmas-decorations-up-until-this-year’s-Christmas." We shall have to ponder this.

We were interested to read in last week’s paper that Casey Campbell, the paper’s trusty reporter, also received, as did we, a holiday gift subscription to Netflix. And we gather that Netflix is in danger of taking over his life, something which we fully understand. We quite concur that once Netflix has become a part of one’s life, one starts to arrange one’s life around it. Will there be time after the bicentennial meeting to sneak in "How to Steal a Million?" Will "High Society" fit between a sewing class and a school board meeting? Can we really watch "Best in Show" while we write this column? How long does "Cat Ballou" run?

And while we suspect one could become a fanatic about this, there are certain aspects of the Netflix experience which we find to be welcome additions to our life. For several of the movies, we have asked a good friend to join us when we thought our choice of movie might also be her choice of movie. However, we did feel that she would quite willingly pass on "The Life of Brian." And a number of people have given us suggestions of movies which they enjoyed and thought we might also.

In fact, we are happy to report that we have had to actually make a list to keep track of all the suggestions for potential movies. All in all, we are quite pleased with our Christmas gift and are looking forward to the movies to come.

Last week, when we were on our way to something, we were driving down River Street toward Main Street when we spotted a deer, standing by the side of the street, waiting, we gather, to cross the street. We naturally slowed down, given our lack of faith in the deer making the right choice as when to actually cross the street. Fortunately, we got by the creature without any difficulty and continued on our way. And although we are always stunned to discover such wildlife in the middle of our fair community, we guess by now we should be used to it. But for some reason we never are.

Consequently, we were equally surprised, on our way back home later that evening, to encounter what we think was the very same deer waiting patiently to cross Pioneer Street. Once again we slowed to a crawl and passed the animal without incident.

However, we do wonder how long it will be before someone, and we hope it is not we, has a vehicular/ deer accident within the village. We certainly hope that everyone realizes that while plying the village streets, the potholes are not the only dangers to be avoided.

We are happy to report that we thought the opening ceremony for the bicentennial of the incorporation of the Village of Cooperstown was a rousing success. Gretchen Sorin, from the Cooperstown Graduate Program, did an excellent job of setting the scene, as it were, of what life was like in 1807 when Thomas Jefferson was president and Lewis and Clark had just returned from their western expedition. And, of course, given the facts of the incorporation, we were all reminded that the village was originally incorporated as Otsego, not Cooperstown, which made us quite think that the potential for a third bicentennial celebration of the name change could will be upcoming in 2012. It makes us think that when it comes to bicentennials, it is always a good idea to remember exactly what event in history is being celebrated. The 1986 Cooperstown Bicentennial celebrated the founding of the village. The 2007 Cooperstown Bicentennial is celebrating the incorporation of the village. So it only makes sense that a 2012 Cooperstown Bicentennial could celebrate getting the name right. [an error occurred while processing this directive]