John's Commentaries

Dear Friends and Family,

Disclaimer: If you don't fit into either of the above two categories you can save yourself a great deal of time and nausea by not reading any farther for you will find that the remainder of this missive is dreadfully lacking in the virtues of humility and self-restraint. After all, this is a traditional Christmas letter and as such should be chocked full of self-congratulatory effluvium and familial boasting which under normal circumstances would be justification for an involuntary act of reversion on the part of your digestive system. However, adding to the emotional difficulties of the season, you, as a friend, or worse yet family member, are expected to wade through all of this prideful emoting while remaining nonplused by the self-proclaimed brilliance of this, thankfully annual, seasonal scrawling.

First, allow me to attend to the traditional content of such letters

My family is better than your family. And our year was better than your year. With that out of the way let me tell you how much you ersonally mean to us and that we greatly value our relationship with you because it provides a gratuitous audience where normally we would have to provide some form of remuneration.

Sorry for the above. But it fairly well defines the types of letters that we all loathe to receive each year. Actually, Julie is more concerned with the improper mixing of first and third person in Christmas letters, but I'll let her write her own diatribe to that effect.

I love my family, and you would too if you were me. They have been reason enough for me to give thanks this year.

Julie has cared for our family as a good wife and mother should despite a full time job and innumerable school and church responsibilities she has successfully undertaken. She has continued to run her rubber stamp business, www.rhapsodyinrubber.com (Did I mention that these types of letters are frequently shills for unscrupulous marketing types?) And feeling that her life lacked challenge, she has undertaken to learn snowboarding, again, this year. In her spare time, Julie is studying the use of sleep depravation as a means of productivity enhancement. She has recently done her patriotic duty by purchasing a new car. A 2001 Ford Mustang, Bullitt edition that is off limits to me until the government finally sees the error of it ways and eliminates speed limits from their definition of philanthropic jurisprudence. So as to soften the blow, Julie purchased for me a new 2001 Ford F150 supercrew truck. She is such the patriot. And if all this weren't enough, she planned and organized my fortieth birthday party at the Richard Nixon Museum. There, she surprised me with my own biographical web site, something that every man should have, www.johnshowalter.com. The online catalog and shopping cart are in development as of this writing.

Megan is fully engaged as a sixth grader with all honors and privileges so confirmed by that title. She has undertaken voice lessons and has continued her piano instruction in hopes of becoming a professional pop star. Julie and I are hoping and praying for something more in the Jennifer Knapp genre as opposed to the dreaded Britney Spears syndrome. Megan ran cross-country for her school this year and won her first medal her first time out. She is deeply committed to perfecting the preadolescent art of sibling annoyance and is rapidly approaching the coveted status of master of annoyance. In snow skiing, Megan has become the veritable snow bunny. You know the type, she is fully capable of skiing the black diamond runs yet prefers to lurk about the intermediate trails looking for good looking boys to run into, or more likely be run into by. Too bad Dad has set the threshold at 35 for her first date.

Brooke is our artist with all of the skills, attitude and unique perspective that is implied by that term. She is right now reworking her bedroom in a Picasso motif. This last season she took to skiing and snowboarding with a vengeance and is unfortunately afraid of nothing. I have engaged the counsel of the hand to her receptive posterior area on more than one occasion for skiing off into parts unknown while Mom and Dad are trying not to lose the snow bunny in the blitz down the hill. As most younger siblings seek only equal status with their elders, Brooke has upped the ante by wanting to actually exceed the limited freedoms allowed to Megan just because she's Brooke and no further justification is necessary. Brooke has undertaken the Ukulele along with the rest of the family this year. She hopes to begin guitar this coming year and eventually take up the violin as well. I keep trying to influence her toward the Cello because I would like to do some pieces requiring one and I'm too cheap to pay an accompanist.

Then there is me. I am the most fortunate person I know. God has given me everything I could want. A wonderful family, a church full of loving people who pursue the truth through God's Word exclusively, a job where I am challenged and well rewarded, friends who are loyal and honorable, and opportunities to pursue my music in a manner that is exhilarating to me and honoring to God. With regard to music, I now have an armory of instruments that allow me to take on almost anything. I haven't gotten Julie talked into the drum set yet but I still consider us to be in negotiations. So what if almost half of our living room is consumed with musical instruments and related minutia. Wouldn't you rather come over and pick up a trombone or guitar to play around on than to sit down in a lazyboy in front of a big screen? As of the last two months I have started playing with two friends from church in a garage band that would be the envy of all my high school dreams. Rich and Phil have allowed me to fulfill a desire to perform even if it's only for God and each other. Watch for us to be coming to an arena near you soon.

The real reason for this season and this letter is to proclaim that peace and goodwill between men is a non sequitur (look it up). Two thousand and some odd years ago the angels spoke of peace and goodwill to man from God. God promised that there would not be peace between men until Jesus reigned as King of Kings over all the nations. For now, man is left to either serve himself as an army of one or to serve his King as a soldier in the army that now stands to occupy this world on His behalf for the benefit of all men, bringing glory and honor to their God, King and Savior.

God bless you and Merry Christmas,
John Showalter, for the entire clan

PS - This year's photo was taken at Lake Powell while houseboating with high school friends and their families. Special thanks to Dennis for Piloting duties and Mike for helping to get us home safely.