Merry Christmas, Blazer's Edge!

Merry Christmas one and all! Not all of our readers celebrate the holiday in the traditional sense, but Christmas is a pretty widely-accepted cultural phenomenon now and even those who'd rather do without will accept our well-wishes, I hope. Days where we wish each other peace and remember that life is supposed to be joyful are too rare...or at least are rarely talked about compared to all the things wrong in the world. Things are wrong, but that doesn't keep us from hoping it can be different, nor from wishing good things for each other today. We certainly wish such for you, our wonderful readers.

Unless you're a Lakers fan, that is. Then may you get more of the same until you're truly sorry for all that ref-aided butt whooping you used to do.

And no, I'm not bitter. This is Christmas. Santa and all the elves hate Lakers fans too. It's part of the Christmas canon.

Heat Miser: "Is that those blasted Jingle Jangle elves again? You better not use them to mess with my domain or I'm going to melt your popsicles but good!"

Cold Miser: "Back off, hothead! I'll freeze icicles so far up your nose it'll pop your brain! Besides, it's not elves at all. It's a bunch of Lakers fans."

Heat Miser: "Turn our rays of elemental doom on them?"

Cold Miser: "Agreed!"

Seriously, that appeared in the original 1974 version of "Year Without a Santa Claus".It was edited out in subsequent re-airings so they could fit in more commercials but you can still find it on bootleg copies.

In any case, we're going to solicit your Christmas wishes for the Trail Blazers in the comment section. If you could give the Blazers anything for Christmas, realistic or ridiculously improbable, what would you bestow? Discuss below.

For those of you watching the NBA marathon today, we'll also have an open thread where you can share your impressions of the action.

I'd be remiss if I let the holiday go by without thanking our new generation Blazer's Edge staffers who bring you great content each day. We should all take a moment to appreciate them.

Chris Lucia is our features editor and writes the best game previews in the business now. Seriously, do not sleep on those previews. He's amazing.

Willy Raedy and Evans Clinchy are heavyweight, long-form analysts who make me eager to check the site each Monday and Friday. Choose Your Own Adventure Offense? Seriously? That's crazy brilliant.

Sam Tongue's video recaps and Ryan Chase's weekly rundown of players create a nice short-form rhythm to the week. They're also part of the Game Night crew which is churning out more content than ever.

Bryan Renzi just joined our ranks this week. You know him as the original In-Arena reporter and you'll love his Wednesday material.

Phil Naessens is a supremely enjoyable podcast partner and a solid radio voice and I look forward to each Tuesday and Thursday because of him.

Ben and Brandon are developing their voices on Facebook and Twitter. Expect great things in both venues in 2015.

Dan Graves finds more news than we could print with 6 websites and is an absolute joy to work with. His enthusiasm is off the charts and he works really hard to get material in front of you.

Gaz and RipCityAshland convert shorter news clips into more detailed stories. Starting from scratch, they and Dan have learned most  of the ropes in a couple short months. They make my life so much easier.

Sagar and Dylan handle post-game web reaction and Sagar is our utility infielder, pitching in with everything needed. Keep an eye on him. He's got the goods (errr...the scrap) to make things happen in this business someday.

Our mods TD, Corvid, TheStripes, Eric, and MrsBro quietly keep conversation flowing. We have, hands down, the best crew in the business. Their finesse is amazing.

And last but not least, thanks go to Timmay. He's not only our GameDay editor and lead mod, he's the eternal answer to, "Can somebody do this real quick?" You have no idea how much gratitude every reader of this site owes Tim, but we behind-the-scenes folks see it every day.

(P.S. New Year's Resolution: At least 2 women on the writing staff by the end of 2015. If you have experience, you might want to drop me a line via e-mail.)

And thanks to all of you, of course. Whether you're with family or far away, I hope your Christmas is joyful and that the Blazers' new year looks a lot like the one they just completed.

As you're making your wishlist for the team  don't forget to help underprivileged youth see Portland's March 30th game against the Phoenix Suns by contributing tickets to Blazer's Edge Night. The cost of a ticket is low and the joy it brings into the life of a child who otherwise wouldn't get to see a game is immeasurable. We're looking to send over 1000 kids this year. You can find all the details here.

--Dave blazersub@gmail.com / @DaveDeckard / @Blazersedge