Halloween is gone now, and it is time to turn our attention to the season ahead. “The Holidays” are kicking off soon, only for us, it looks like it’ll be “The Holiday” as it seems like we’re skipping Thanksgiving.
You read that right. A day that both my wife and I historically look forward to all year is shaping up to pass by us without notice at all. The reason for this decision is multi-faceted. My work schedule is shaping up to be what we call “A-Lines,” or Midnight to 8am. As a result, my sleep schedule gets shifted a bit. I’m anticipating 4-5 hours of sleep which takes me out of commission until around 2PM every afternoon.
This means three things:
- I’ll be asleep most of Thanksgiving day.
- I will be back to work Thanksgiving night.
- We are not traveling anywhere for Thanksgiving because of points #1 and #2.
This year, in our rotating ‘holiday schedule’ we were set to visit my in-laws for Thanksgiving. That clearly isn’t happening since we wouldn’t be able to leave for the 1.5 hour trip until 9am Thanksgiving day, and would have to leave again that night so I could get home and get ready for work again.
We refuse to host, since again, I’ll be asleep, not to mention our home is way too small to host anything more than a small, short gathering.
My parents invited us for dinner again this year, which COULD work since they’re local…except my in-laws would be less than thrilled. So, to keep the peace between us and all the extended family members, as well as make sure I can get some rest between shifts….we’re probably skipping Thanksgiving all together.
We may do something small with just us and the kids, but I don’t think we’ll do even that because both my wife and I realize it wouldn’t be the same. I don’t think it makes much of a difference to the boys, the little one is only three and has no clue what’s going on yet, and the oldest doesn’t really care about Thanksgiving, since he’s usually carted to a family members house and surrounded by people he hasn’t seen in ages…which is a high stress situation for him, being shy and reserved as he is.
….don’t even ask me how Christmas is going to work yet, since the boys will be waking up two to three hours before I get home from shift.
Has anyone ever ‘skipped’ a holiday? Or, should we say ‘screw it’ and celebrate with my family for the few hours that we can?
I don’t know if I’m ready for this Holiday season at all.
adequate dad 