And so it was that while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:6-7 EHV December 25, 2018 Dear Friends and Family, It's been a busy Christmas for me, as I got a chance to participate quite a bit in both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services at Gloria Dei. On Christmas Eve we had a service of lessons and carols. Various lay members of the congregation read the lessons. My reading included the familiar verses quoted above. On both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I was one of the musicians as well, playing guitar on 8 out of the total of 18 hymns we sang between the two days, and doing one solo during the Christmas Day offering. It was a lot of fun getting to share the music leading load with Kathy Lee (organ) and Anne Marquardt (piano and flute) in various combinations. Both days I had pleasant evenings with friends from church. Pastor and Karen Shrimpton invited everyone up to the parsonage after the Christmas Eve service, and we had a nice crowd enjoying delicious food and conversation. This evening Kathy and Gene Lee invited me to join them for a family Christmas dinner along with one of their daughters and a friend of hers. I hurried home afterward to squeeze in writing this letter before bedtime. In many ways, my year in 2018 was similar to most of the last few, though with a few differences. I'm still at VMware, still finding the work interesting. It's been a bit stressful at times what with Spectre and other CPU security vulnerabilities the industry has experienced and has had to respond to. As a virtualization vendor, VMware has had to track these issues closely and participate in the mitigation efforts, and I've been one of those personally working on our part of that, though (fortunately) my role hasn't been the largest. I've also had to work together with hardware vendors on a number of difficult to diagnose bugs that could be in either hardware or software and affect our mutual customers, some of which are still ongoing. In March I spent about a week visiting my brother Bill and his wife Nancy, while Bill was recovering from heart surgery. My sister Mary also spent time with Bill. She was there over a month, while I was there only for the last week of that time. Bill had a difficult recovery, but improved quite a bit during the week I was there. Mary's nursing experience made her a big help to Bill and Nancy. My own heath has been okay. My follicular lymphoma still seems stable, so I am just going in for regular checkups and PET scans to keep tabs on it. Foot issues still keep me from running or hiking as I used to enjoy doing, but I have been biking somewhat more this year. In July I spent my usual week at Tree of Life Lutheran Bible Camp as song leader. Jordan Hochmuth on keyboard and Laura Pluckhan on vocals worked with me again. We've been teaming up for enough years now that we can pretty much read each other's minds and play without needing to practice together first. It's always a joy, but I would say that this year we had especially good singing participation by the campers -- and of course that's what it's all about! Check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TreeofLifeLutheranBibleCamp/ for camp photos and videos. Besides being treasurer at Tree of Life and Gloria Dei, I am also still treasurer of the condo homeowners association at the small townhouse complex I live in. My duties here happily are mostly confined to signing checks that our management company writes for us, plus offering my input at board meetings. Right now we're in the middle of getting our landscaping redone. I think it will look great when it's all finished. In August I traveled to Milwaukee to visit Mary and to attend the wedding of her grandson Michael (aka Misha). I had met Michael's fiancee Grace a couple of years earlier, when they both came out to Palo Alto for a track meet at Stanford. It was great to have a chance to be at their wedding. In November, Mary came out to visit me for Thansgiving. We were invited to Pastor Shripton's for dinner, and brought some pies that we worked together to bake. Mary and I also had fun wine tasting, visiting the ocean, shopping, and playing Dominion. What with everything else I took time off for this year, I decided not to take Christmas week off, so I'll be back at work tomorrow. It should be a quiet time to get some things done without a lot of distractions -- I hope! My best wishes to you all for a blessed Christmas season and a great new year in 2019! Tim