Dr. Jim Surrell, Journal columnist

On today’s very special Christmas Eve day, I wish you all a most blessed and joyful holiday celebration with your family and friends. It is such a very special world wide day to spend time with our loved ones, and often with family and close friends that we may not have had any recent contact. It is a special time to also spend time with fellow workers and neighbors as we take the time to attend various holiday parties and celebrations.

Of course, one week after Christmas, we have our annual New Year celebration. In the United States, perhaps the most famous traditional New Year celebration is the dropping of a giant ball in  New York City’s Times Square at the stroke of midnight. Millions of people around the world watch this highly televised event, which has taken place almost every year since 1907. Over time, the ball itself has ballooned from a 700-pound iron-and-wood device to a brightly patterned sphere 12 feet in diameter and weighing in at nearly 12,000 pounds. There are also many other towns and cities across America that have developed celebrations that are similar to the Times Square ball dropping celebration.

Let me now share with you some New Year’s humor and comments that I hope you enjoy.

A New Year’s resolution is defined as something that goes in one year and out the other.

All the eye doctors are very nervous about this coming New Year. They are concerned that everybody’s vision might become twenty-twenty in the year 2020.

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Abby. Abby who? Abby New Year.

Every year they drop the ball in New York in Times Square to bring in the New Year. We should all hope that dropping the ball is not something we will do in the year 2020.

My New Year’s resolution last year was to quit all my bad habits. But then I was told that nobody likes a “quitter”, so I decided to not follow through with this resolution.

Following is a New Year’s wish for all of us to consider. May any personal problems that I may encounter in 2020 last only as long as my 2020 New Year’s resolutions.

On January 1, 2020, we can all say that we remember 2019 like it was just yesterday.

I asked a lady if she had a date for New Year’s Eve. She said, “Yes, it’s December 31st.”

Let me close with three quotes that I believe help us to put our New Year into proper perspective.

“We all get the exact same 365 days. The only difference is what we do with them.” – Hillary DePiano

“Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” – Brad Paisley

“What the New Year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the New Year.” – Vern McLellen

I wish you all a most joyful holiday season and a blessed and prosperous new year as we move into the year 2020.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Jim Surrell is the author of “The ABC’s For Success In All We Do” and the “SOS (Stop Only Sugar) Diet” books. Requests for health topics for this column are encouraged. Contact Dr. Surrell by email at sosdietdoc@gmail.com.