Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas)!

Merry Chirstmas... or should I say Merr-itt Christmas! Because I am now officially a Merritt. It took me a little under two years of marriage... but I’ve decided Chris is a keeper for sure! I even have a new license with my brand new name, on which I am officially ten pounds lighter and half an inch taller. Don't worry, I don't have a complex, I just like to screw with the government and stay under the radar.

Unfortunately, my sweet boy had a pretty lousy Christmas. He left for work at 5am Christmas Eve and came home 2pm Christmas day. Not only is it sad to work on Christmas, but the patients were all cranky and not very jolly. Not even the demented ones. Apparently, a volunteer Kanakaloka (Santa) came to hand out chocolate and candy to the patients but had to skip all of the diabetics (some of the patients had to have their candy taken away after the nursing staff realized what was going on). Isn’t it awful when Santa can’t spring for stickers and sugar-free gum? In addition to dodging cranky diabetics, Chris also had to pronounce someone dead. Now, poor, sweet Chris has never had to pronounce anyone dead before, and when he finished checking for a heartbeat, reflexes, etc., all of the nurses were staring at him and waiting for him to say something. He then realized he had no idea what to say. His first inclination was to turn to the patient and say (he seriously told me this), “I now pronounce you dead.” Yep. That is what Chris was about to say.

He then tried to think about how he’s seen it done on TV and finally came up with something a little more dignified about expiration and time of death, directed towards the nurses that were still of this earth. Anyway, it reminded me of when Michael declared bankruptcy on ‘The Office.’ :-) What CAN’T we learn from TV?

After Chris came home we opened presents and went for a swim. Then I made Chris take a Christmas nap...just like the other Mrs. Merritt used to do when Chris was five. We woke up to have Christmas dinner with Wendy and Mustaafa (we had a great Southern/Moroccan fusion meal) and were back in bed by 8:30.

Luckily, the next two weeks shouldn’t be quite so bad because Chris is on nightfloat. That means he has no call and, if there’s any time, he gets to sleep in a janitor’s closet instead of the haunted apartment down the street from the hospital. Chris is going to take a picture of his janitor’s closet soon because I hear it’s pretty funny. Until then, here is a little ditty Katie and Ben introduced to us about Anesthesiology... MELE KALIKIMAKA!

P.S. I don't know how to write Happy Hanukkah in Hawaiian, but Happy Hanukkah/Chanukah/Hanukah to my mom's side of the family, too! Even though I don't know the official Hawaiian spelling, I imagine the same rule applies that you can throw in as many c's, n's, k's, or h's as you wish. The creative spellings are, of course (for those who don't know), part of the "miracle of Hanukkah."