"I'll end it tonight, not with a 'Merry Christmas' but with a more appropriate "Good evening," he concluded.
The twenty or so people in attendance quickly exited the small auditorium. Soon after, the Doctor locked the doors and left.
As he walked to his car, the wind picked up, and snow flurries began to fall. The drive home was uneventful except for the traffic jam caused by parishioners waiting to enter a church car park for a Christmas Eve service.
As he slowly passed the church, he wondered if these people only knew the truth. A few minutes later, he pulled into his driveway, opened the garage door, parked his car, and entered his warm, cosy house.
After finishing his dinner, the Doctor walked to the living room and, looking out of the large window, noticed the snowfall had become heavier.
He sat down in his favourite comfortable chair next to the log burner, deciding to catch up on some of his science journals. He opened one of the magazines to an article titled 'Rewriting the Axioms of Quantum Theory' and started reading.
As he was engrossed in the article, he glanced up at the living room window and noticed that the snowfall had intensified.
Suddenly, he heard a loud thumping sound coming from the window. Two more thumps followed, and he quickly got up to investigate. Upon reaching the window, he thought someone was throwing snowballs at it.
However, he saw something unexpected after turning on the outside lights and looking around. A small flock of birds was huddled miserably in the snow on the ground. "They must have flown into the window during the snowstorm," he figured.
I can't let these poor birds freeze out there. Let me see what I can do for them. The Doctor put on his coat and boots and went outside. He tried to catch the birds, but they fluttered away when he got too close. He tried approaching them slowly, but they scattered when he got too close again.
He looked around and noticed the garage. After opening the garage door, he backed his car out and parked it in the driveway. With the garage light on and a small portable heater plugged in, the Doctor thought that should provide a warm and safe temporary place for the birds.
He returned to the birds and tried to coax them towards the garage, but they did not want to go in that direction. He tried shooing them in, waving his arms and gesturing to them. However, the birds scattered in every direction except towards the open garage.
He thought of using food to entice them. He went into the Kitchen to grab a few slices of bread that he broke into smaller pieces and sprinkled the bread in a line leading to the warm, light, open garage.
But still, the birds did not go in and ignored the bread trail. He realised that the birds must be afraid of him and that he probably seemed like a giant and powerful creature to them. He spent a few moments pondering the situation.
He wished he could speak their language and tell them they could trust him. He realised that to understand them, he had to think like a bird and think about what he would need in the same situation.
As he stood there pondering his thoughts, the church bells began ringing out the glad tidings of Christmas. The Doctor sank to his knees in the snow as he realised that people and animals are the same and their needs are just like ours as the birds slowly gathered around him and snuggled up close to him for the warmth and the breadcrumbs in his open hands. Is this the Miracle of Christmas or One Medicine in action.