(Editor's note: Duke junior guard Sheana Mosch, the Blue Devils' co-captain, will share a diary with ESPN.com throughout the season.)

Dec. 25, 2001

I'm actually on an airplane right now heading out for Atlanta. We play Tennessee on the 27th and have practice later this evening, so our Christmas was cut a little short this year.

	Sheana Mosch has helped lead Duke to its second Final Four appearance.

It was great to be home, though. We had a home game on the 20th and my mom drove down to see us play. Instead of flying out the next day, I drove the eight hours back with her to Pennsylvania immediately afterwards.

I've been bugging my parents for the past two years about buying an electric piano for my apartment and I finally got one this year! I used to take lessons when I was younger, but the only thing I got out of that was learning how to read the notes (even though it might take me five minutes to finish one line because I still have to use the F.A.C.E to figure out what the stinking notes are).

So obviously I'm no Mozart. But I love to play and throughout my years in college I've occasionally dropped over to the Biddle Music Building to get my mind off things or to try and teach myself a new song. I'm so pumped because I can play whenever I want now. All I need is some headphones so I don't wake the neighbors up at two in the morning.

That'll definitely save me a few complaint letters from the cacophony I'll surely be producing. And for anyone who thinks they'll get to hear me play a song or two (Eli -- I'm especially talking about you!), it'd be best to get that idea out of your head right now! It's a pretty sad sight when I play in front of people. I get really nervous and my hands shake so much that I can't even push down the right key. I only play for my own enjoyment!

Dogging it
One of the first things I did when I got home for Christmas was head out to Bucknell University to visit some friends. I picked up my best friend Sarah along the way and we watched our two buddies, Katie and Vanessa (who are on the women's b-ball team) play against La Salle. We had a little get together that night, left the next morning, and I stayed with my family for the rest of the time at home.

It was great to see my whole family again, along with our four dogs and two cats. My brother, George, and his wife, Kristin, were especially happy this Christmas because their beloved dog, Sandy, who had run away and decided to be Tarzan of the Pennsylvania forests for three months, had finally been found a few weeks ago. So they showed their love for her by shoving a tight, red Christmas sweater on her. Yeah, she really liked that.

Our other dog, Duffy, is a dachshund and his story is a real trip. He had to have surgery on his back a couple years ago and consequently lost the use of his back legs. So since then he's been transporting himself around the house by a little "wheelchair" that hikes up his back end.

Also, due to a few infections, he's lost one of his hind legs and his tail. A lot of people feel badly for our three-legged, paraplegic tailless dog, but he's actually one of the happiest little campers around. Even after the time when his butt caught on fire because he was sitting too closely to the heater in the kitchen. How was he supposed to know? He doesn't have any feeling in his back end.

But thankfully my mom came in, yelled, "Duffy, you're on fire!" then picked him up, threw him in the sink, and saved the day.

Buy hey, we're about to land so I got to go. Don't forget to watch our game on Thursday at 12:30 ET on FOX.

Merry Christmas and God bless!