Holiday work

I work in a business that never closes. People are needed at the Nursing home, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means I work every other weekend and every other holiday. This was my year to work Thanksgiving.
Although spending the day with family is preferable, it's really not so bad to work either.
It's always a little more laid back, many of the residents are looking forward to either going out or having family visit and we get to see a lot of families and catch up with them.
I work with some really great people, who really want to make the day special for our residents. One of our aides went out and got make-up and hair styling products, and a few of them spent extra time in fixing up many of the ladies. There was a lot of laughing and joking around between staff and residents. When I greeted one of my men in the morning with a "Happy Thanksgiving", he responded by saying "I hadn't seen any sign of it, until this turkey (meaning me) walked into the room". He thought he was pretty funny!
It also happened to be my birthday, so I was serenaded with the birthday song at breakfast and was spoiled with a few gifts and lots of birthday greetings.
There is also the sad part of holidays for those residents whose families don't visit often and don't show up on the holidays. One of our ladies was pretty sad to see others going out and no one coming to see her. We try to provide some cheer, but it doesn't match up to what family could do.
After work, I joined my family at Bob's Mom's house, where I had some leftover turkey on a roll and a yummy piece of cheesecake! I also got to spend some time with family.

Here's Bob's Mom snuggling with her newest great grandbaby. I think Alaina looks pretty content, don't you?

Some of the family helped set up Mom's Christmas tree. It was a nice way to end the evening. Hope you all had a good day too!

Thanksgiving Day

Hope you all have a blessed day, spending time with family and friends and taking time to thank God for all the ways he has blessed us again this year.

Thanksgiving

I hope you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving Day. We had a fun day here. My side of the family came over for dinner. We had the whole group here, except my niece Katelyn, who is in India doing a Social work internship. (She had a good day too - she visited the Taj Mahal!)
I can't fit that many people into my dining area, so we set up tables in our family room downstairs, and it works quite well.

Here is the whole group, busy talking and eating!

It seems the meal is too quickly done, and the clean-up begins. Here is my daughter, Laura washing dishes while my sister, Cheri dries and my sister Terri talks! My stepmom was stacking dishes in the corner.
I had this picture on Facebook and poor Terri got a lot of harassment for holding down the counter, so I should just say that she was actually putting things away.

The guys are cheering on the Lions, who lost again!

Bob and Laura were standing talking at the end of the day, and I thought they looked so nice together and snapped their picture.

Now - for the best part of the day!
Andy told us he would be having Thanksgiving dinner with a friend, and we were glad he wouldn't have to eat army food for the day. However...

Our doorbell rang at 10 that morning, and surprise! There was Andy on the doorstep. He had driven up to spend the weekend and only told his sisters. He came to celebrate the holiday and to help celebrate my birthday, which I'll tell you more about tomorrow.
He was also able to surprise the rest of my family. Once we all sat down to eat, he came down the stairs and asked if there was enough for one more. Everyone was shocked, and thrilled to see him. So, we had lots to be thankful for, on Thanksgiving day!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all of you a wonderful day!  I hope you are able to spend time with friends or family, and have time to stop and think about all the things we are able to thank God for.