Last year about this time, I compiled a list of gift-giving suggestions for other people. This year, I say to heck with that. This is what I want in 2012.

1. A Stanford quarterback almost as good as Andrew Luck (asking for one that’s better than Luck is just insanity)
2. A Goldilocks winter, with not too much rain, and not too little
3. Equity (both kinds: social and real estate)
4. The highest-scoring Super Bowl ever with Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees and Tom Brady firing rockets back and forth (I love the 49ers, but not defensive games)
5. A Republican party that remembers its heritage in Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Rockefeller
6. A Democratic party that realizes you can’t draft an unenforceable law governing every idiotic human behavior
7. A Goldilocks car – one that’s not too big and not too small, with dual climate controls so it really can be too hot on one side and too cool on the other
8. A grain, a speck, a smidgen of the Facebook IPO
9. Something along the lines of the kinder, gentler nation the Bushes promised but never, ever delivered
10. A Goldilocks presidential election  – one that’s not too exciting and not too boring, with the outcome never, ever in doubt
11. For the next person who talks about the sanctity of heterosexual marriage be forced to watch every episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians back to back
12. A London Olympics that makes my wife smile for the rest of the summer
13. A practical reason to buy an iPad (there are already scads of impractical ones)
14. Another busy year for my career (anything that gets me closer to retirement is okay with me) with clients who pay on time and don’t schedule 9 a.m. Eastern meetings
15. Fewer nose hairs (or at least fewer ticklish ones)
16. Fewer aggravating airline charges (hey, United – why are you charging me a $240 “administrative fee” to change my travel dates when I’m doing it online?)
17. Goldilocks interest rates – ones that won’t kill the rebounding economy but will actually give retirees some return on their savings
18. Laughter, preferably involving familiar stories of youthful foibles with longtime friends
19. Happiness to my friends and confusion to my enemies (and for whoever said that first not to read this)
20. Continued inspiration to keep my blog readers happy throughout the year