Thanksgiving 2008

I volunteered to work on Thanksgiving. I knew that I was taking Monday through Wednesday off for our friends' visit. At the time, I thought that one of the boys would likely have a soccer tournament this weekend. By volunteering to work on Thanksgiving, I would have the rest of the weekend off. Besides, next year my grandmother will turn 95, and her birthday usually falls around Thanksgiving. I'm earning brownie points for a long weekend next year, right?

The price was that I would be away from my family on Thanksgiving. That's not usually a problem since we're not really big in the traditional Thanksgiving foods, and what matters most to us is being together, even if it's a day later. As I walked into the building yesterday morning, however, I started feeling so depressed. I don't like being away from my family. Everyone else at work was talking about their plans for lunch or dinner with their family (depending on what shift they were working). I like to order takeout when I'm working on call, but most restaurants were closed, so I couldn't even do that.

Thankfully, my family came to visit me, and that was just what I needed. We had food from the hospital cafeteria, some turkey, ham, cornbread dressing, rice, and some glazed carrots. I was the only one that ate any of the carrots. The food was decent, but just not what I would have wanted. As we were eating, DS#2 asked, "So, are we going to have a 'feast' tomorrow?" DH and I didn't know how to answer that. Did he mean that he felt like he was missing out on Thanksgiving by not having all of the traditional food? I told him that I wanted to have Chinese food. He said, "Oh good, I like Chinese food better than this stuff anyway." Too funny--that's my boy! :)

So, I decided to count my blessings instead of being depressed about working on Thanksgiving. I had a wonderful dayshift crew who were efficient, hard working, and great to work with. I have a wonderful family, who visited me at work and gave me kisses and hugs. They even brought some pumpkin pie and yummy chocolate cheesecake from Marie Callender's. This adorable little boy ran up to me and gave me a big hug when they arrived. He was also running with me in the hallway during their visit. It was fun watching how fascinated he was with the automatic doors. Of course, I have to be thankful that I have a good paying job during difficult times like these.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! Remember to count your blessings! :)