I was brought up to believe that holidays were for families, and you should spend them enjoying the people you love.
Our holidays were filled with friends and family dropping in and enjoying time together.
My husband had other ideas when he decided to be an HVAC technician. Instead of enjoying the holidays with the family, he was usually working. It wasn’t so bad when he was just an HVAC technician, but now he owned the HVAC company. If any of his HVAC technicians took time off work, he filled in for them. He said they were younger with young families. Their children needed them to be home when Santa Claus arrived. I understood this, but I wanted my husband home to be with me and the grandkids. He understood and I was sure our kids understood, and we went ahead and partied without him. Last week, he went out on an emergency HVAC call. He was gone all night long, and the phone was ringing again when he got home. I told him I wasn’t allowing him to go back out. I called the HVAC company and told his secretary she had to get another HVAC technician to do the job. She said they were all home with their families, and I told her my husband was too. I wanted to know what she would do if my husband were sick and he couldn’t get out of bed. She said that would be different circumstances. When I said he couldn’t get out of bed, it took her all of ten minutes to find another HVAC technician.