I used to work in a long term pharmacy and that meant that sometimes we had to work the major holidays, Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year’s. My first year with them, Thanksgiving was coming up and we had to choose which holidays to take. My sister had just ended a long term relationship and didn’t want to explain to several dozen people where her partner was so she wasn’t going to Thanksgiving with my parents.

I decided that we could have Thanksgiving together. So, I put in for that day and felt good about it.

You might note in those actions, I didn’t talk to my sister about us having dinner together. So, when I, full of misplaced pride in what I had done, told my parents about this, they pointed out that my sister was going to California to have Thanksgiving with her friends.

And that’s how I spent that Thanksgiving alone. Communication is important!