We have a running joke with our surgeon.  He takes his job very seriously, and Liberty’s condition has distressed him to no end.  He visits her two or three times every day, and he is serious and solemn even though he looks like the kind of person a little boy grin should be coming out of.  He generally skips writing a link in Liberty’s Thankful Chain, and Liberty generally calls him out on it and forces him back into the room to fill one out.  He never ever can think of something to be thankful for!  He cracks us up!

A couple days after Thanksgiving the usual scenario was playing itself out, but this time he protested, “Thanksgiving is over.  I don’t have to be thankful anymore.”

Liberty responded, “Thanksgiving is NEVER over!  Especially in the Thankful Room!”

He dutifully figured out his thankful and added it to the chain, and after he left Liberty and I had a hilarious idea!  At least it was hilarious to us!  We decided to play along with his sentiments.  So I took down our Thanksgiving signs outside our door, and I rewrote them on red and green construction paper, using Christmassy terms.  The warning sign changed to “Merry December!  Help me build my Merry Chain!”

The next time our wonderful doctor entered the room, we informed him that we had taken his words to heart and done away with the Thankful Chain since Thanksgiving was past.  You could see the relief on his face.  Through barely suppressed giggles, we showed him the new strips of paper on the sink counter, all red, green, and white, and we asked if he and his team would be the first to start our Merry Chain.  

You should have seen his face! 😂

“A Merry Chain??” He repeated in disbelief.  “What is that?”

“It’s where you write what you are merry about,” we explained.  “You start it, ‘I’m merry because…’”

You could see the crinkling eyes above the masks of his doctor students who always silently follow him.  While he digested this information, they began writing their Merries.

Poor guy.  He makes us laugh!

We’re winning him over though!  The other day, he snuck into the room while Liberty was sleeping to chat with Jeremy while I was at the hotel.  Normally, if Liberty is sleeping, Doctor will definitely NOT fill out a strip unless I make him, and without me there he for sure wasn’t going to fill one out.  This time, he pulled a strip and wrote it, and he told Jeremy, I’m signing and dating this one and adding the TIME because I want credit for this!  I thought about it all night what my Merry would be.”  😃