Ask Paul: December 27 (Premium)

Here in the weird interim between Christmas and New Year’s is an Ask Paul to end the week … and the year!
Whither OneNote 2016?
SherlockHolmes asks:

I have a question regarding how do you get the old Office OneNote as was part of the desktop Office suite. As I understand it, Microsoft have decided to Update that program again. But when I reinstall Office 365 Home, OneNote isnt part of the Office suite. Do you have an idea when this is going to change? I dont have installed the UWP version of OneNote. Thanks.

In early November, Microsoft revealed that it was bringing the desktop version of OneNote back from the dead. Previously, it had moved to the UWP version of OneNote as its primary client on desktop, it had never released a OneNote 2019 version alongside Office 2019, and it had stopped providing the old version, OneNote 2016, with Office 365 downloads.

But now everything is different: Microsoft is again supporting OneNote 2016 as its primary client on desktop, and it is starting to add new features to it again to bring it up to date with some of the unique functionality that previously appeared only in the UWP version of the app on desktop. This process will take a while, but I expect that OneNote desktop (they will have to drop the 2016 branding at some point) will be provided again with the Office 365 downloads.

As another reader noted in the comments, you can still download a standalone version of OneNote 2016 from various places, and this is the only way to get it for now. The most obvious choice is at OneNote.com.
Christmas
madthinus asks:

What was for Christmas lunch / Dinner. Any good family traditions. Got anything exciting under the tree?

Like a lot of people, we split the holidays with family, so this year we had Thanksgiving at our house (with 22 people, if I remember correctly) and we had our family Christmas event---two sisters and their families plus my stepmom are all local---on Christmas Eve at a sister’s house. We always do a Thanksgiving-type dinner for Christmas (turkey, stuffing, etc.), so we cooked that at home that day and brought it over to my sister’s place (and she had a bunch of other stuff as well). On Christmas Day, we had hot pot, a Chinese meal consisting of hot soup stock and various meats and vegetables, with just our immediate family.

My son gave me a Call of Duty-themed “Noob/Vet” photo (plus a more serious present) for Christmas, which you may find entertaining (see above). My wife bought us some concert tickets, which was a nice surprise. Nothing overtly tech-related, which was actually nice. :) But I did buy my wife an annual subscription to Medium.com.
Star Wars
StevenLayton asks:

Did you get to watch Star Wars over the holiday? If so, did you enjoy it?

Not yet, sorry. :) I was going to go on an off day when the holidays are over and the crowds have subsided. But I’ve been drowning in spoilers and feel like I can at least say this: As much as I apprecia...