"You are sooo giving me a baby for Christmas," is what Joanie Juster heard a fashionable young woman scream into her cell phone on Post Street near Union Square.

And on Masonic Street, there's reason for the Newsoms to rejoice (having nothing to do with Larry Ellison). Raise your Christmas Eve glasses tonight to toast Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Gavin Newsom, and baby Montana, who'll become a big sister in June. I'd made some inquiries about this a few months ago, but the first family was shy about it until late Wednesday, when Siebel Newsom called with confirmation. Thursday, mayoral evasion on the issue led Ronn Owens to figure it out.

The baby-in-the-making is a boy, and his due date is June 19, which is Siebel Newsom's birthday. The family plans to keep on living here, in the Upper Haight, while the new lieutenant governor commutes to his job in Sacramento.

What's Christmas without snowflakes glitchening?

-- After a shopping trip to Ikea, Gayle Wilson of Fremont overheard her husband, David, on the phone to the store: "Can you tell me what I bought? A tanda, yes, but what does it do?" (The tale has a happy ending; it was a light timer, which is what he'd set out to buy. Following the instructions, however, proved a challenging means to a successful end.)

-- At Target, Sandy Towle overheard a woman say into her cell phone, "Well, are you losing weight or gaining weight? I need to know so that I can buy you something." Oh, hardhearted gift giver; consider a pair of gloves.

-- Pickpockets are "out in full force," says a woman around town, quoting downtown restaurateurs reporting a "siege" of stolen handbags in restaurants, as many as five to six a night in certain establishments.

-- Rick Lawlor cites a classified ad from the Monterey County Herald: "Plastic statues, 18" Joseph and Mary, $15. No baby." (Maybe the baby, focus of the holiday, after all, is on Craigslist.)

-- Despite what they said was repeated telephone pleas for help, 15 disgruntled folks were trapped for 45 minutes in a department store elevator last week. One said later he came away with $50 worth of coupons to compensate. I'm not naming the store because it's had had enough trouble this Christmas. Peace on earth, goodwill to salesclerks and Santas.

-- In other transportational hang-ups, the city of Calistoga police log, as noted by Nanook of the North Bay, reported a "car-on-deer" accident this week, in which the vehicle got the better of the animal. "The deceased deer was removed from the roadway. Santa may be a bit late, now running on 11 reindeer-power instead of 12." I thought there were eight plus Rudolph, but what do I know, I spin dreidels.

Since this is the season of brotherly love, here's a hug for John Brady, who e-mailed to complain about Will Durst's interpretation of "A Christmas Carol" as seen by Republicans: "The happy ending would be when Tiny Tim died and stopped being a burden on the state."

Wrong, wrong, wrong, says Brady. "Tiny Tim was never a 'burden on the state'; his father was supporting him and he was saved from an early death by his employer voluntarily raising his father's salary. ...

"You could make an equally non-sense 'joke' on the left: If Will Durst wrote 'A Christmas Carol,' the happy ending would be Scrooge still refusing to let Cratchit burn coal (think of the carbon-footprint!). And Tiny Tim would've been aborted, since the Cratchits already had too many children for the planet's sustainability. Ho ho ho."

-- Guests at Thomas Keller's annual holiday party, on Sunday, included foodies, chefs, vendors and patrons from as far away as Europe and Japan, who consumed, among other things, foie-gras-frosted cupcakes (foie mousse was piped atop light brioche-style cakes).

-- The Chronicle's Anastasia Hendrix noticed the picture inside the locomotive that pulls the traditional Christmas present train outside McLaren Lodge: It's Giants closer Brian Wilson, driving the train to happiness in so many ways.

-- Following up a recent item about the history of phone books, reader John Bear, owner of a 1908 book, says most numbers were four digits, with a few notable exceptions. In Palo Alto, Mrs. Leland Stanford's phone number was 3. (In the Kearny exchange in San Francisco, the Examiner was 1.)

Open for business at (415) 777-8426 or e-mail lgarchik@sfchronicle.com, tweets @leahgarchik.

This article appeared on page E - 12 of the San Francisco Chronicle