Last "work" day for some of us

I'm sure none of you reading this would ever spend a minute of your employers' time reading blogs when you should be creating spreadsheets or shoveling dung or whatever you do. That being said, it occurred to me some people may only read these things on weekdays, and with the impending big holiday weekend I thought I'd chime in with some more useless crap about my life. Of course I would never spend company time working on my blog either would I? I work in a machine shop that services the steel industry. I've spent alot of time fretting whether or not I'd have to work Chrismas Eve, Christmas Day, etc, etc,.... The big mills shut down on those days to do repairs and the maintenence guys and the repair shops get to bust ass and fix the shit before the doors open on Monday (or the next workday). I work in the office now, so I don't have to worry so much about that anymore. Typically places like this expect you to be here ALL the time. I've said this just to put things in context, not bitch. I'm very greateful I have a long weekend coming up and I hope you all do to. It will be my Son's first Christmas, and I set a precident a few years ago. I'm not leaving the damn house on Christmas day. When I was a kid Christmas was the time to travel. Luckily, we did not have to go far but we would drive 15 miles on Christmas eve to someones house, (it varied). Christmas morning we would open our presents, get dressed and go to Grandmas by 1:00, eat open presents and split. We would leave there a few hours later and go my other Grandmas and eat, open presents and when I was real little the Jolly Elf 'Hisself would show up. Grandpa would try to figure out how to work his camera and spend the rest of the night flash-strobing everyone into near blindness and Harvey, my Dad and my Crazy Uncles (all of them) would play with my and my cousins toys. Now, don't get me wrong I love my family and I got one hell of a haul in the way of presents. I come from a family of what I call light-blue collar. We've all sort of crossed the line from blue collar grunt work to stuff like shop teacher, ER nurse, draftsman, truck garage manager, and theres the overachiever with the PHD. My point is I got alot of stuff, but I wasnt swimming in expensive gifts. I had lots of new flannel shirts and G.I. Joes and lots of love. Looking back, I have very fond memories of Christmas with the exception of driving all over Hell's half-acre in 20deg. wheather to get to Grandmas. This Christmas day, I'm not even putting pants on. I'm going to hang out with my family, watch Rex Grossman throw footballs into the hands of waiting Green Bay Packers and eat like I've got two butt-holes. I hope all of you have a kick-ass Christmas or whatever you celebrate. Think of all the folks dodging bullets with sand in thier cracks and say a prayer for them if that's your thing. Give to a charity if you can. Dont get drunk at the office party and call your boss a prick. And last, when that lady grabs the last Elmo from the Mega-Lo-Mart, just smile and walk away. I will leave you with the parting words from my favorite Christmas movie, Bad Santa - Shit happens when you party naked.