Giving Thanks

The past several years, I've been a ghost around the house from this week until the first week of January. In my previous career in retail, these next six or seven weeks mean everything, and despite increased commitment each year to spending just the alloted amount of time at work (last year, my boss threatened a bad job review for anyone who went more than 30 minutes overtime for any week), we were never able to get out of the store with less than 45-50 hours each week.

My wife would just wave to me on my way out, no amount of discussion being enough to fix the problem of not having me around to chase The Prince around in his annually-increasing holiday mania or help around the house. I'd come home most nights after they'd gone to bed, wake up before them and take off for work, only to return in time for dinner in a state of mental exhaustion. If my job was normally like fending off a stoning, the holiday shopping season made it like having floor seats for an avalanche.

When I quit that job in May, my very first thought was that I'd get to spend the holiday season with my family, and starting today with an abbreviated shift at my new daygig, that's about to happen. I can give thanks for my wife for her support, to my son for his energy and spirit and to my soon-to-debut daughter for a renewed promise of a great future.

Let this old sap give you a moment of advice: Let yourself enjoy what you've got. I tend to look around at my life and focus on what's not there, but this holiday season I'll be reminding myself that not long ago I didn't have any of what I have now. Sure, it may dampen my drive for a moment, but it will serve as fuel to keep driving.