The prophets told us long ago
                                   a star would come from Jacob.
                                This child would be born in Bethlehem,
                                   and he would come to save us.
                                O come, O come, Emmanuel.

December 26, 2024

Dear Friends and Family,

Time again for my annual Christmas letter, just one day late this
year!  This year was eventful for me, with some tough times that led
to some great blessings.

The toughest thing for me this year occurred in mid-October, when I
took a fall from my bicycle, landed on my left side on the pavement,
and broke my hip (femur head) and my collarbone (near the shoulder
end).  I needed surgery to insert three screws into my femur to hold
the bone firmly together so it could heal properly.  The surgery went
very well, but it takes a long time to fully recover from this sort of
injury, typically 4 months to get back to 80%, 9 to 12 months to get
back to 100%.

A great blessing that has followed is that I have been making good
progress, having graduated over 10 weeks from a walker, to crutches,
to a cane, and recently to walking without the cane.  I am doing
exercises every day, doing a fair amount of walking, and seeing a
physical therapist every two weeks.  Progress is gradual, but very
real and fairly steady.

I'm also super thankful that my niece Beth was able to come and stay
with me for a week early on in my convalescence.  She helped with a
lot of things and cooked up a storm, filling my fridge and freezer
with lots of tasty leftovers to eat after she went home.

The next toughest thing this year was that my cat Katinka died back in
May.  She had an intestinal tumor, and surgery wasn't successful.  I
had had Katinka for about 10 years and had been hoping she'd live
quite a bit longer.  She was a great cat with a lot of personality.

As a blessing that followed, I was able to adopt two new cats.

I adopted Cillian right away in May.  He's a big boy, about 15 pounds.
When the shelter folks opened the cage to let him out, he jumped right
into my arms and started purring and licking my face.  After I got him
home, he was still affectionate, but also super active and
rambunctious, and was always trying to get outside.  I tried taking
him out for a walk on a leash as an experiment, and he adapted to that
right away, so I started taking him out almost daily.  That helped
some, but he still needed something to use up more of his energy, so
next I headed back to the shelter to look for a playmate for him.

I adopted Tulip in mid-July.  At that point she was a 13 week old
kitten, small but growing fast.  She and Cillian made friends within a
few days.  She's also adorable in her own right.  She is up over 10
pounds already, and can hold her own when Cillian wants to play fight
or groom her more than she likes.  The two of them have settled in
quite well now.

Another blessing for me was early in July, when as usual I volunteered
at Tree of Life Lutheran Bible camp for a week.  I'm on the board as
treasurer and webmaster, then for the week at camp I'm the music
leader, playing my guitar and leading the singing at our evening
singalong and devotion.  This year I took video of some of our song
times, which you can see and hear at
https://treeoflifebiblecamp.org/piwigo/index.php?/category/93 if
you're interested.

Work this year seemed tough with many changes caused by VMware's
integration into Broadcom.  It's been a blessing in a way to be off
work on disability leave with my broken hip.  Nonetheless I have kept
in touch with work email and have helped with some small things from
home.  I'll be going back full time on January 6.

I've still been going to Stanford sporting events for fun, mostly
women's basketball and volleyball.  A kind fellow fan took me to
several games after my injury before I was able to drive again.

At church this year I've still been serving as treasurer, singing in
the choir, and playing guitar for worship from time to time.  The
verse at the top of this letter is from a choir piece we sang on
Christmas Eve, reflecting God's greatest blessing of all!

                                Love in Christ,
                                Tim Mann