Gary had to work Tuesday night from 5-10pm and only had a 15 minute break. He was slammed. I said “wait till Thanksgiving Day”. He has to work from 11 to 11. OMG. I hope he survives. His eye looks terrible (he won’t let me take a photo of it) and it hurts and waters all day. I keep reminding him it’s temporary. Still, he doesn’t want to scare the guests. They keep putting him on the register, though, so perhaps no one thinks it’s as bad as he does. But it's bad, and going to get worse before it goes completely away.
No one had to work Wednesday. We decided to have a little fun, so Donna and Ron and we headed over to Hollywood Studios. Before long it was dark, and time to walk down the streets of New York to see the lighting of the Osborne Lights. The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights started modestly in Arkansas as a single home's annual display. Every year, Jennings Osborne and his family set up an elaborate collection of holiday lights and over the years, the collection of lights grew, and grew... and grew! By 1993, the display had over three million lights. The display was, however, not as popular with the Osborne's neighbors. They claimed that the display created massive traffic jams near their homes and loss of electricity. In 1995, the Osborne family decided to share their magic with the world, and Walt Disney World Resort happily offered to become the new permanent home for this exceptional exhibition of holiday cheer on the Streets of New York. The display is made up of over 10 miles of rope lighting connected by another 30 miles of extension cords. The extension cords and lights are held together using two million ties. It takes 20,000 man-hours to install the display each holiday season, starting in September. The lights are turned on at dusk each night, starting in mid-November and running into the first week of January, and require 800,000 watts of electricity.
You can’t really tell it’s snowing, but it IS! Fabulous. And did you know that they throw out all these lights every year? I hear all you guys cheering out there. What a tangled mess that would make… Food is really expensive for guests, so we decided to have a bite at Buffalo Wild Wings on the patio. Mmm, spicy! We were all ready to hit the hay for tomorrow was Thanksgiving!
Gary got up and left for his 12 hour work day, but his poor eye was really sore and ugly. Even with bandages on, he was not a happy camper. I got up to drive to St. Pete to spend turkey day with Michelle and her family, Tristan and Lily. Lauren made place cards,
Lance made sweet potato casserole, Graham helped with the green bean casserole, I carved the turkey and here it all is on the table.
Here's the Thanksgiving baby, Henry. 
Chocolate cake and coffee completed our Thanksgiving meal.
When asked what I was thankful for, I said “reasons to get up each morning”.
After I thought about it, I realized it is so true. I don’t know about you, but I love things to look forward to. Anticipation is more than half the experience. I remember living in Toronto and looking forward to a winter vacation week in Florida. Things to do before reaching the big red circle on the calendar: booking plane tickets, finding the flip-flops and water-wings, hoping for good weather so our plane wouldn’t be delayed. Finally – the circled date! Off we went and fun, fun, fun. And then – before you knew it, the week was over. Back to the ice and snow for a couple months. But then there was Spring to look forward to. Was I missing all the days in between? No. Everyday was enjoyable (mostly), but there was always that special day to look forward to that gave me a little thrill just anticipating how much extra fun we would have. Now, my calendar is red circle after red circle. Something new all the time. Reasons to get up in the morning. Amen.
The hour and half drive home was quiet and dark. When I pulled up to the coach, I was surprised to see the Jeep parked in front. Gary was home! He was lying on the bed with and icebag on his eye. Poor guy. What happened? Well, his first job of the day was to sprinkle the powdered sugar onto the funnel cakes. He loves that job. He does a little bit, then looks at the guest with a ‘more?’ look. They shake their head yes, and he adds a little more. Another look. Another yes, and finally it’s perfect. One happy guest. However, my poor hubby did this for SIX HOURS STRAIGHT. Nobody came to give him a break, and his tears were running down his face. Since he couldn’t use his hands with gloves on, he had to use his white shirt sleeve. Well, the co-ordinator walked up and Gary asked if he could take a break now. Damien was so shocked that he had been standing there for 6 hours (and in such agony) that he told Gary to go home. Now that’s a good manager. Fortunately, I had made a Thanks giving plate up for him, and he gobbled that down (get it?). So we spent the rest of the evening catching up, until we finally turned out the lights.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope you have lots of red circles on your calendar!
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