Holiday Cheer 2009

Yes, it’s here, my annual Holiday Cheer blog. I realize that it’s a little early. I usually write after Christmas but before New Years. This year I couldn’t wait. Last year,the Davis family (wife’s family) treated me to my first full-Christmas experience. It was Christmas morning and the family sat around the Christmas tree opening their gifts starting with the youngest person (Becky) to the oldest (big poppa). It’s really an all-American family. I was the poor fool that was completely unprepared and didn’t buy any gifts when I was showered with them.

Not this year baby! I’m hooking up the family. Jon already got a pair of Laker tickets (the Miami game where Kobe hit the game-winner). Becky already knows some tickets are coming her way. That’s all I’ll say for now because it isn’t Christmas yet.

Speaking of the family experience, apparently the Davis family has their Christmas decorations stored up in boxes that take up about a third of their garage. I asked them why would they keep that stuff around when you only use it about a month out of the year. The mother-in-law told me “because it’s Christmas” like it was self-explanatory. For most people it would be self-explanatory but for a guy who didn’t have much of a Christmas tradition growing up it almost seemed foolish to use up that much storage.

The mother-in-law continues and says that one day I will be doing the same thing when the kids come along. I replied, “What does Christmas decorations have anything to do with raising kids?” She says, “It has a lot to do with raising kids.” I wouldn’t have ever made the connection between Christmas decorations and raising kids. After giving it some thought, I realize that having a family tradition where you think outside of yourself (getting gifts for other people) and coming together to show that we care enough to put some thought into the gift we give each other shows community and love towards one another. It builds an environment and atmosphere of family and togetherness. It shows that you're not the center of the universe and what truly makes the holidays great is the gathering of God's people in the form of families. Even Becky wanted the wife and I to stay over on Christmas Eve so we could wake up together on Christmas morning. If you know Becky, she never openly admits that she wants us around. It’s just been ingrained in her since she was a child that this is a time where the family is to be together.

All right, I will concede the fact that I will probably start decorating for Christmas in the future but I certainly won’t take up a third of the garage to do it. Besides, I have visions of the garage being my “man-room” where I study the Scriptures, play video games, watch basketball, and invite the guys over for poker night (all in that order).

Okay, on to more important things like the NBA on Christmas. In years past there use to be a game or two on Christmas at the most but now there’s a full schedule (five games in all). Of course the match ups of match ups, the Lakers vs. Cavs, Kobe vs. Lebron! Since the NBA went through all this trouble to schedule Christmas day games I decided I should schedule my day around it. Here it is:


8:00am – Wake up and have some breakfast, open gifts, and make fun of other people’s gifts.

9:00am – Miami @ New York: I’m going to DVR this game while I make the family watch “Always Showtime,” a documentary on Magic Johnson. The other night the wife and I were watching it and she says, “I didn’t know Magic was such a good passer.” My reply, “For being a social science major you really don’t know your history.” I promised myself that no one in the Jamreonvit household would ever say something like this again. Surprisingly, even the father-in-law hasn't seen "Always Showtime." He loses Big Poppa points for that one.

After finishing the documentary with the family I’ll watch Dwayne Wade light up the Knicks and fast-forward through all the time-outs and commercials just in time for:

11:30am – Boston @ Orlando: KG vs. Dwight Howard. Even though Paul Pierce isn’t playing because of a knee infection it’s still going to be a good game. Of course this is all a warm-up for:



2:00pm – Cleveland @ L.A. Lakers: Like I said, Kobe vs. Lebron! Do I really need to say anything else? Historically, the Lakers and Kobe haven’t played well on Christmas (4-6 in there last ten Christmas games) but I believe last year’s win over Boston is a turning point. One game won’t settle the Kobe vs. Lebron debate but it will sure to add fire to it. I’m fired up just thinking about it. After the Lakers win I’ll cerebrate by drinking too much root beer in one sitting and regretting it later. Yes, a Christmas tradition in the Jamreonvit household. Happy holidays.

My picks for the games (home team in caps):

NEW YORK (-2.5) over Miami
ORLANDO (-5) over Boston
LAKERS (-5.5) over Cleveland
PHOENIX (-9.5) over Clippers
Denver (+5.5) over PORTLAND

Mentors and Kobe

Luke had Yoda, the X-Men had professor Xavier, Bruce Wayne had Ra’s al Ghul, Robin had Batman, Larry and Curly had Moe, Uma Thurman had Pai Mei in Kill Bill, Jack Black had Master Shifu in Kung Fu Panda, and Britney Spears had Madonna. Okay, the last one didn’t work out so well but you get the point. Very rarely, if ever, does one achieve greatness without a mentor to guide the way.

In order for a mentor to work, a person must be teachable. This of course requires humility. The humility to be able to admit fault, to learn from personal mistakes, to ask questions, and to realize that we don’t have all the answers nor do we have our act completely together. Once this realization happens the door of excelling blows off its hinges.

My professors at Biola University and pastors at Grace EV Free La Mirada had, and still have, a profound impact on my life. Older and godly men invested in my life. These men have tons of life experience, wisdom, and knowledge. I wanted to tap into that life experience and incorporate that wisdom into my own.

It’s been three years since I’ve graduated from grad school. I have a full-time job, a dog, and a wife. Basically, I’m a busy dude. There is a tendency to rest on my past accomplishments and think I’m okay without further guidance feeling like I’ve “arrived.”

Now, there’s Kobe Bryant who just won a championship last June. For several years he took the brunt of the criticism for the Shaq trade (no one points out that Shaq demanded to be traded that summer but whatever) and destroying a possible dynasty. To add to the insult, critics continue to discount the three championships that Kobe won because “it was with Shaq” as though they didn’t count. Anyone who believes that clearly didn’t see any of the games.

Winning the Finals last June cemented his legacy as one of the best ever to play the game. Kobe could basically tank the rest of his career and his legacy wouldn’t be affected. Despite winning it all, Kobe never felt like he’s “arrived” in a sense that he no longer needs to work. What else can you do if you’re Kobe? Is there anything else left to prove?

A week into this season ESPN.com's J.A. Adande so expertly noted, “Kobe's still doing work -- but he relocated his office … [he] is leading the league in scoring by relying almost exclusively on a post-up game -- even against bigger defenders such as Houston's Shane Battier. In fact, the one notable change about Bryant's 41-point effort in Houston as compared to other efforts against Battier was how deep Bryant was catching the ball.”

John Hollinger says, “You have to admire a guy who comes back from a championship season -- the icing on his career cake, basically -- with a new facet to his game rather than resting on his laurels.”

Kobe is currently averaging 29, 5, and 4 shooting a career high 49% from the field. He is also one of the league leaders in steals at 2.30 a game. He’s having another MVP season and has the Lakers as favorites to win another title. But the new facet of his game didn’t just drop out of the sky. He worked on it with the help of Hakeem Olajuwon, one of the greatest post players of all time. This really blew my mind. This takes a great amount of humility to ask an all-time great, “Hey, I was wondering if you could give me some pointers.” This also takes a passion for the game. No, he's not trying to prove anything. He just wants to get better because he loves the game of basketball.



No, Kobe isn’t as athletic or as explosive as he used to be, but it’s his drive to always continue to get better that will keep him at a superstar level for years to come. This gets back to my main point. There is no retirement in the Christian life. There is always room for improvement and seeking older and wiser people that can offer godly counsel and guidance and above all, accountability is way to "improve" yourself. Kobe continues to find ways to get better and asking someone to mentor him is a good resource. I say we should use the same strategy.

Reassigned 2.2

A couple of weeks ago my staff decided to have a potluck. The cool thing about being a part of a new staff is that they haven’t discovered that I’m an unbelievable moocher. My old staff found that out quickly and hind food from me and never told me about the potlucks until everyone had eaten first. Of course I played the fool and pretended I didn’t know there was a potluck and the staff graciously said that it was “okay” that I didn’t bring anything and to go ahead and enjoy the food anyway. Enjoy the food I did, and then some. I even saved a great deal of it for lunch the next day. Bingo!

Now I firmly believe that no events are isolated from one another. What we do in one instance, affects another. For instance, hiding the fact that I’m an unbelievable moocher, the Lord would not allow me to get away with it. This week the heater in my room broke down and it has been 20-below zero since. I could keep food in my room without it spoiling. A work order was sent in but if you know how school districts work, it won’t be done this year. Wonderful.

Now if I brought food like I was suppose to for the potluck things might be different. You might be saying that the Lord didn’t break my heater or that the Lord wouldn’t do something like that. My argument would be if he allowed Israel into the captivity of foreign nations because of their idolatry then it wouldn’t be out of character for Him to break my heater because I’m an unbelievable moocher to teach me a lesson. Either way, it’s freakin’ cold!! This happens to be reason 56,610 why I will never move to Portland – It's too cold.