Past personal struggles helped make 2023 a glorious year

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This ones personal. If you want something jaded and cynical from me today, you can find that elsewhere in this section, where Im writing about the Knicks who, even in good times tend to draw out the skeptic and the critic from your soul. Its OK. I wont take it personally.

And sure, its Christmas Eve Sunday morning. It is a day designed for good cheer and good tidings and good will toward men. There have been a lot of years when I took that as a challenge, a dare to shake off all the wonderful holiday spirit and remind you that the Mets still arent deep enough, or recount all of the football follies our local teams have perpetrated. The juxtaposition always delighted me. Still does, if Im being honest.

Just not this time.

Just not this year.

Because 2023 has been a good year for me. If youve read this column for any length of time, you know that 2022 wasnt quite so nice. I had some health issues. That culminated in having to have my left leg amputated below the knee. I was happy enough to be able to share that story this year, and so many of you were kind enough to reach out to me after that piece ran in The Post on June 4.

I remember last New Years Eve, just after the ball dropped, and I was with my wife and some friends. I made a pledge to them that I would cherish every second of 2023 given the way 2022 had gone and, lets be honest, 2020 and 2021 werent exactly banner years for any of us, either.

Past_personal_struggles_helped_make_2023_a_glorious_year Mike Vaccaro plays golf at the River Vale Country Club. Charles Wenzelberg/NY PostIll drink to that, the lovely Leigh Vaccaro said, and since she was with me through all of the darker moments of those three years, Im happy to report that she has shared all of the good stuff in 2023. Since my birthday is Jan. 1, I enjoy the rare quirk of knowing how old I was during every day of every calendar year my whole life. So if it feels like Im channeling the Chairman

When I was 56

It was a very good year

well, I am. It was. It starts with Leigh, who knows better than anyone better, probably, than even I do how meaningful it is to me now to do simple things: to walk into press boxes (or just to walk, period), to play nine holes of golf, to cash a winning ticket at Saratoga, to step on a treadmill again.

Vac’s Whacks

Ive given this years of consideration and am now ready to render a verdict. Die Hard: not a Christmas movie. Its a movie that takes place at Christmas. Theres a difference.

Forever Met Cleon Jones and his wife, Angela, hosted a holiday party this week for close to 200 children in Africatown, Ala., a town hes invested so much of his heart in the past few years in an effort to revitalize his hometown. We saw lots of smiles, said Cleon, now 81. Theres nothing better than making kids happy, especially around this time of the year.

A couple of smart young entrepreneurs, Michael Gold and Mike Schroeder, have created a game to help teach kids the nuances of football: Future Fans. It uses a storybook, easy questions and characters to spark interest in learning the rules of the game. Its not a video game, so parents have to play it in person. Check it out.

Man, it would be fun to see what it would look and feel like late Christmas afternoon if its Giants 10, Eagles 6 heading into the fourth.

Whack Back at Vac

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