I've been in this business for about 24 years, give or take. It's been a full time job, it's been a part time job, it's been a volunteer job. It's taken me around the world to some fantastic places and allowed me to meet some wonderful people everywhere, a lot of whom I'm still friends with and converse with on a regular basis. One thing has always stayed constant, no matter where I've been or what I've been doing; the holidays.
Oft times I was the "low man" for seniority and had to work the holidays. I was young, not married with no kids, and it didn't bother me all that much. I love being home for Christmas but not being there sometimes is part of life for whatever reason. So I usually accepted it but tried to make amends somehow. The holidays have always been fun for me by spending time with family and friends, catching up, playing cards, and eating an obscene amount of food. As I look back on the past couple decades I can see my holiday season somehow always intertwined with EMS, the FD, or work, and the memories are about Christmas. I know that there will be many more to come and lots more memories that will flood in ten years from now but I remember these very well.
Let's see; I was late picking up my date to a Christmas dance one year because I was on an ambulance run. I didn't have to go but I was in town, felt the need to help out and hoped like hell my date would forgive me. It didn't go over too well but we had a fun night.
Christmas Day all over the world and pulling them all together is interesting. I've volunteered on Christmas Day many times and usually it's very quiet around our hometown. I can't really remember a lot going on until later on in the afternoons when most of the presents have been opened and the lunches had already been served. Yeah, we've had the occasional choking because gramma stuffed her mouth a little too full with turkey and stuffing or grandpa slipped and fell outside trying to help little Joe ride his new big wheel that Santa brought. FYI, big wheels don't have a lot of traction on ice; neither do patent leather shoes, grandpa!I've spent many a Christmas Day overseas or offshore. I had a couple terrific Christmas Day dinners in the Persian Gulf with "family" and friends. I remember the best present I got one year happened to be a case of beer. I thought it was a little odd but it served as a terrific present from my "Gulf Mom."
I remember moving a rig in Nigeria on Christmas Eve. I was sitting in the wheelhouse eating peanut M & Ms, drinking a Coke, and tracking Santa on NORAD's website and announcing over the rig's PA system where Santa was located. At midnight someone else beat me to saying, "Merry Christmas" on the PA. I was bummed someone else beat me to it. After all the hard work I put in to finding out where Santa was and that had to happen. Man,... The first Christmas I spent in Louisiana was fun. I was told by a partner earlier in the year that I'd be in shorts and a t-shirt on Christmas Day. Being from the Midwest I laughed. Lunacy is what I thought about that. No way, impossible, couldn't happen. On Christmas Day I happened to be working and was taken over to my partner's house in Amite. We had a terrific morning, lunch, and afternoon at Jeff's house. I was taken in by his family and treated as one of their own. They even had a small present for me, which I was totally surprised by. He was one of my favorite partners to work with since that day and I always tried to work with him when I could just because he was such a terrific, down-to-Earth kinda guy. And, I had on shorts that day.
Usually the offshore bunch gets treated very well. Mind you, we're at work away from family but we're with our second family. It, like any other normally celebrated holiday, is just another normal workday for us. I've fried turkeys offshore on holidays. I've grilled red snapper (yummm) for Christmas dinner. The good thing is, most of the drilling and production companies spare little expense when it comes to the holiday meals. Filet, shrimp, lobster, whatever. The catering staff always managed to decorate the galley and office areas with tinsel and light and other hanging things. In the Gulf of Mexico I used to take strands of lights and line the boom of our 120' bow crane to make it in to a huge Christmas tree. I surprised my mom one year when nobody expected me to come home for Christmas because of work. I took a couple days off work, drove all night to get home, and walked in gramma's back door and right up to mom and surprised the hell out of her. One of the few times I'd ever seen her cry because she was happy. That was a good day and I'm smiling just thinking about it.
Probably one of the hardest EMS runs I've ever dealt with happened many years ago on Christmas Day and I think about it each and every year; about the run, the little girl, the people I worked with, how we worked our asses off that day, and that little girl's family. I cried that day and it still chokes me up just thinking about all the details I can so vividly remember about what happened. Wow, what a day! It went from one extreme to the other. We all went from doom and gloom to cheering and happy in that hospital ER. And now I get to spend my Christmas Days at home with my family. My wife of ten plus years, our three kids, one dog, gazillion cats, and whoever else decides to show up. Our son "knows" about Santa and the two girls know he's the guy that brings all the presents. What's really neat is one of the gentlemen who "plays" Santa locally is good pals with my in-laws. So they see him a couple times a year and he always remembers them. Santa knows what's going on, trust me. They believe it and in him.
Seeing their faces light up when they see the cookies have been eaten, the milk's almost gone, the crumbs on the fireplace hearth, and ALL those presents under the tree makes it worthwhile. Santa is their pal. He brings them all the goodies and toys they've wanted all year long. They're so happy and carefree that morning, or at least until they see a toy the other child has that they wanted and didn't get. Then all hell breaks loose and it's every person for themselves. This Christmas season has been full of surprises and one I'll remember for a long time, if not always. It's been full of trials and tribulations, of hard work and taking time off, dealing with illnesses and families who are having difficulties, a bad economy and a lot of people needing a little assistance just to get through the holidays. It's had one hell of a surprise with Chris and Kari, and a wedding or two to boot. What's similar here to all of these is that in some way, shape, fashion or form, they all (for me) somehow tie back to EMS and the people we're involved with.
Christmas isn't about toys and presents. It's about giving, sharing, remembering, loving and caring, taking care of each other and watching out for everyone else. It's about Christ and His miracles which we've seen already this year firsthand. Put all those things together, dash in a little EMS and who we are and what we do. Now you have one mixed up bag of stuff that most normal people wouldn't be able to make heads or tales of. But we know. We understand. We, the First Responders, EMTs, Paramedics, Firefighters, deal with it day in and day out. We are a huge family that remembers all of the little things, what it used to be like then and what it's like now yet we persevere and continue doing it each and every day because we love our jobs. We love helping other people. We love being a part of such a huge family. 
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