Sheila and Dick MacWilliams until recently lived in the house behind the Clintons' home. When Mr. Clinton was still in office, he invited the MacWilliamses -- along with other neighbors, town and county officials -- to a White House Christmas party. The MacWilliams became well acquainted with the Secret Service detail that protects the Clintons, and occasionally enlisted their help in ejecting overly aggressive reporters from their yard. Last spring, when the MacWilliamses first put their house on the market, the doorbell rang. It was Bill and Hillary, who were out for a walk and had seen the ''for sale'' sign.

''They said they were sorry we were moving,'' Mrs. MacWilliams said. ''I said, 'I can't believe the first time you're at my house I'm in sweats.' They said that they were in sweats, too, and I invited them in for coffee and they stayed for about 45 minutes. We talked about all kinds of things. It was very easy and very delightful. Everyone asked later if I was nervous, but I didn't have time to be nervous.''

Mrs. MacWilliams said that like many Chappaqua residents, the Clintons had remodeled their kitchen, and had also enclosed a small screened-in porch. The Secret Service has also added many security features, including a fence between their two houses.

MR. Clinton said he had been away a good deal on Sundays, because he often gave speeches out of town on Saturday nights. He has kept his membership at his home church in Arkansas, but said he hopes to be home more on weekends in the future. The Clintons attended a Christmas service at the Congregational Church in Chappaqua, and both have visited Temple Beth El in Chappaqua.

''A lot of my friends in Chappaqua are now inviting me to bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah ceremonies, some of which I hope I'll be able to attend,'' Mr. Clinton said.

One day, Mr. Clinton said, he was driving past the local Baptist Church when he noticed a pickup truck with Arkansas license plates in the church driveway. Two days later, he got a letter from the pastor, who had been at a small Baptist church in Fayetteville, Ark., not far from where the Clintons had married. The pastor had been reassigned to Chappaqua, and invited the former president to attend services.

''The first day I went there, there was a Chinese lady leading the choir, there was a Korean family there, there was an Indian girl playing piano, there were Jamaican families there, and all these people had been converted where they live,'' Mr. Clinton said. ''And they have a blind ministry: there were three or four blind people there. There were less than 100 people in the congregation. It was amazing. It's an interesting little place, and when I'm here on Sunday, I like to go down there.''