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Andrew Tsang's avatar
Andrew Tsang
Dec 25
Health is Other People

๐˜๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ฑ๐˜ช๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฃ๐˜บ ๐˜›๐˜ช๐˜ฎ ๐˜œ๐˜ณ๐˜ฃ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ'๐˜ด ๐˜›๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜›๐˜ข๐˜ช๐˜ญ ๐˜Œ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ.

Iโ€™ve had 38 Christmases. Letโ€™s count them out using Christmas trees (and use a present for the one today):

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ

Looking at it laid out in rows, it seems like a lot (since itโ€™s essentially the length of my life).

Today is my 16th Christmas with my wife.

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ

Counting it out, itโ€™s surprising and pleasant to think about โ€” what a big chunk of my holiday memories are with this girl I met in college.

Today, Iโ€™m celebrating my 4th Christmas with my son.

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ

And my first Christmas with my daughter.

๐ŸŽ

Counting it out, itโ€™s not a lot by comparison. But I guess whatโ€™s more interesting are the Christmases to come.

If Iโ€™m lucky, Iโ€™ll live to a nice age of 90, which means Iโ€™ll have about 62 more Christmases ahead of me.

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

โ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

โ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

โ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

โ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

โ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

โ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

I breathe a sigh of relief that itโ€™s a nice big number to look forward to. If my luck continues, I might get the good fortune to spend those with my wife and kids. But honestly, having 62 more Christmases with my daughter seems incomprehensible since sheโ€™s a baby.

Then, I think about how many Christmases Iโ€™ve spent with my own parents. At first, I thought it was 38 in a row, but there was that one December I traveled to Hong Kong without them, so thereโ€™s a ๐˜ด๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ gap. Counting the dinner party later tonight, this is how itโ€™s laid out.

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

โ„๏ธ๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ

My parents are 68 and 66 now. If theyโ€™re as lucky as I want to be, then 90 would be a good age to live to.

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„

โ„๏ธ๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽ„๐ŸŽโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

โ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

โ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

โ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

That means they have roughly 30-ish Christmases left. If weโ€™re lucky, we can spend them all together.

Laying it out like this, it dawns on me that Iโ€™ve crossed the halfway mark of total Christmases together with my parents. The majority of the Christmas days are ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ us. Weโ€™re counting down the Christmas days now.

Each year, a Christmas day passes, and I try to make them count.

-Health is Other People

Dec 25
at
6:17 PM
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