The holidays are work but is the work worth it?
Team #2 going all out singing The Twelve Days of Christmas for the Thanksgiving Challenge this year

The holidays are work but is the work worth it?

We host a big Thanksgiving, each year entertaining between 20-30 family and friends.  We make it an event with a lot of activity and insane amounts of food. In our house we not only make all the turkey and fixings from scratch, set a beautiful table scape, pick wines for the wine tasting, organize the football pool, but each year I also create a surprise game that makes for a day of laughter and memories.  Last year we played the Newlywed Game, in honor of our niece that just got engaged and this year was a series of unexpected team challenges. As the day came to an end, and my husband and I were cleaning up close to midnight, he looked at me and said, “Thanksgiving is work”.  

This year we put even more work on our plate by hauling my seventy-eight-year-old mother and her husband up to Tahoe to cap off their visit from Florida with a few days in the snow.  Six of us, plus a dog, bags of food, pillows, blankets and more packed into our car on Friday at 11am for what is typically a three-hour drive.  As we were climbing the summit, two hours into the drive, a tractor trailer jackknifed.  The snow on the summit was coming down like mad and the highway shut down.  We sat stationary on the top of a mountain watching the snow pile up and the sun set.  In truth, it was a little scary, but ten hours later we made it over the overpass and landed safely in our Tahoe home.  We filled the time in the car airdropping funny photos to each other, singing with the radio, calling family members that couldn’t make it West for the holiday and commenting how lucky we were to not be the ones in the actual accident.

As we were settling into the house last night, I thought about my husband’s comment, “Thanksgiving is work”.  He’s right, it’s work. All of it.  The prep of the turkey, the creation of the game, the hours of clean up, the drive to Tahoe. But, as I sit here this morning, in a beautiful snow-covered cabin, I’m reflecting on how the work is worth it.  My mom is here, my kids are asleep upstairs, I’ve got a slew of funny photos and videos on my phone from our airdrop session and I’m certain this holiday adventure will be laughed about for years to come.

The whole experience makes me think about all of our work and how doing the hard work is always worth it. It doesn’t matter if you are an entrepreneur, an employee, a job seeker or raising kids.   The more we put into our work, the greater the outcome.  It is the entrepreneurs that work the hardest that get the reward, it is the mid-level manager that keeps their nose to the grind that gets the promotion, and it is the most ambitious person that lands their dream job and smiles through their days.

The ability to work, no matter what you do, is something to be thankful for.  Hard work always delivers great results, whether it is creating a holiday feast for family and friends or creating new opportunities in your job or business.

The holidays will always be work but may this holiday season bring you the passion and desire to work on all the things you care most amount. Wishing you and your families a wonderful holiday season and a New Year filled with lots of hard work!

Emily Stanford

Senior Writer at First Round Capital

4 年

Team 2 aka the WINNERS!! Love this post?

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Valerie Harrison

Senior Account Executive | Motion Recruitment

4 年

Bravo to the Shine clan, enjoy your time in Tahoe, your hard work pays off:):)

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