Christmas Hodgepodge

Friday.

I am working two days next week. I decided that if I am going to take a vacation I might as well do it right. I know I am going to be bored at home but that is what being on vacation is really about.

I am second-guessing myself now because all the college kids are going to be home and wanting that last minute appointment and I won't be here. I am looking at the bank account and it is not looking that pretty. But I guess this is the kind of thing that we all have to deal with. If we take a vacation, nobody is making any money.

But for me, I get the added pressure of my wife spending money likes it is water. Don't get me wrong - I know we have to buy presents for the family and I like a good sale too, but I AM STRESSING OUT HERE!!! (I love you honey and I think you are a great shopper. And I love that you saved $27 dollars at Publix using coupons and the Publix card.)

I love this time of year, and I am so moved by my patients. I get Christmas cards from my patients and I just love that. I love having a relationship with them. I love that they think enough of us here to put us on their Christmas card list. Some even bring cookies, some bring cakes (oh, I love a good rum cake), and some will even bring presents. I am so blessed.

The staff lounge table is getting filled with goodies and it makes me warm inside. Fat inside but also warm. Speaking of fat, I downloaded this app on my phone called Lose It. Have you seen this?

You tell it how fat you are presently (or how much you weigh), you tell it how pudgey you are (or your height) and then you tell it your desired weight and how long you want to take to lose the weight. Then it gives you a daily amount of calories you can have.

You enter all your calories per day. It has almost every restaurant in its database and almost every brand of food from the grocery store. (But what it doesn't have is Mrs. Brown's rum cake that she brought me, so I didn't enter the three pieces of that I whoofed down.) After every meal, you enter what you ate and try to stay under your allowed calories. I mean this is not rocket science but it is fun. I have been under every day so, tall, dark and handsome here I come (okay, maybe average height, dark and handsome).

Let's talk about The Christmas Letter for a second. Have you started getting them? I don't want to tick you off because I know a lot of you write the letter. In fact, my wife wrote a letter. Here are some Gammichia guidelines to the letter (and I gave my wife the same shpeel).

This letter is about information - not bragging. Tell me about your kids. Everyone thinks their kid is the best, so don't go over board with this. Tell me your kid was on the debate team and loves it. Don't tell me that she is the only 8 year old on the high school team.

Successes are great, you being rich is also good - for you. Tell me your job is going great and you are so passionate your work. Don't tell me that you went from a Mercedes Convertible to an Aston Martin.

Laugh at yourself. Yy wife told everyone I ran in a marathon and she added my little trip to the medical tent.

This could be my last blog for the year. I don't remember if I told you that I am going north for the week after Christmas. Remember the mountain home we went to in the summer?



We got the same house for a week after Christmas. So, on Christmas day afternoon, we are getting in the family truckster and driving to North Carolina. My kids have never really seen snow so it should be great. This week, they got 8 inches of snow.
We are going to try to get in a little snow skiing and some tubing. The kids are so excited they can't even stand it.

We have invited our two cousins and their families so it is going to be a crowded house this time. I will take lots of pictures. Hopefully this trip won't involve a trip to the hospital, but you just never know. Maybe if it does, I can put it in next year's Christmas letter.

But listen, all my babbling shouldn't take away from what this season means. We lose the meaning of Christmas in all the BS that we have created. If you are Bible-believing person, Christmas should be about celebrating Jesus coming to Earth for the redemption of man. That is, Jesus coming to earth to show us the way then to die for us.

But that is what is so crazy about the Christmas story: the King of Kings coming to earth to save us (from ourselves) but he came and was born in barn and placed in a pig's trough. Not really the way we thought it was going to happen, but that is a conversation for another day. But you know what? He did it for me and He did it for you and I am really glad He did.

Merry Christmas and have a blessed New Year. We have a lot to be merry about.

Thanks for reading,
john