This piece is dedicated to all the industries that are open 365 days a year…so there are no holidays, no days off, those industries do not close.  I think of; First Responders, Healthcare Workers, Airline employees, people working in the Food Industry during the holidays. See thats the thing…some of us are fortunate to have the holidays off.  Other people are required to work holidays; its their job, its how they pay their bills, it might even be their passion.

Half my family works in healthcare.  We have learned to adapt to the different schedules.  Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day are all regular work days.  What has created a challenge for our family is that the two that work in healthcare work opposite weekends!  So if we are planning an event, we have to work around opposite work schedules and sometimes that means having a family lunch celebration instead of a dinner.  It means we communicate with one another so that we can snatch those brief moments together.

At the end of the day…family is everything!  Blest to have them, blest to have the moments we have as we navigate separate schedules that sometimes conflict but we manage.  I am grateful I get every holiday off.  We make it work whether its celebrating our holiday the weekend before or the weekend after, having a Thanksgiving Lunch instead of a Feast!  Its about creating unique opportunties to be together even if that time is short since someone may need to leave for work.

Thank you to the First Responders, the Healthcare Workers, the employees @ the Airports we travel, and the server @ the restaurant we may have our Thanksgiving dinner at.  Thank you for working on Thanksgiving…its appreciated!