Ours wasn’t perfect but it didn’t suck either.  I guess these days that should count for “good”.  We had Christmas Eve off and for the first time was able to go to the family Christmas Eve at someone elses house.  Usually it’s at our house due to the store being open until about 4 or 5 that day.

Christmas day started off great.  Mom and Dad and Grandma came up as did my Mother-in-law.  The husband didn’t go to work until 11.  Later in the day however plans changed and Mom realized that she wasn’t feeling well enough to stay.  At that point the store was pretty busy so I draggged the kids to work and we worked the rest of the day until we closed an hour early to go out to dinner.

Now, there have been countless times that I have worked Christmas Day.  Even after having the kids.  It’s a fact of life and the luxury of always having a holiday off just hasn’t been in the cards for me.  (Hell, my kids worked this year)  I’ve even worked for the selfish you-know-what of a co-worker who refused to ever work Christmas Day regardless of who she inconvenienced.   It never ceases to amaze me how many people absolutely do not appreciate the fact that you are giving up your Christmas Day to be open for them.  I probably had about 3 people express gratitude.  Most did not.  And a few were downright bitchy.   Shoplifting was, of course, another thing I had to deal with.  One I kicked out but the other two thought they were being sly by just slipping one thing in their pocket while buying a few other things.  They never caught on to the fact that I added the item in their pocket to their total and they paid for it anyway.  Sometimes that’s a much better route to take than a confrontation.

We closed early to go out to dinner at a place that we know is always open, 365 days a year including holidays, and I made sure to thank each and every person who served us for working Christmas (not to mention tipping well).

So while another year with my family was great, my faith in humans in general just slips lower and lower as times goes by.