Thanks to all of you public servants and military personnel that will be sacrificing family time this holiday season. We appreciate your sense of duty and obligation. Be safe and know that you are appreciated. 
Thanks, Watch your top-side . make it home safe
To all of you who are giving up your comfort and freedom so that I can enjoy mine, thank you.
CJ
Thanks in anticipation to the volunteer firies (the CFA) and the volunteer rescue folk like the SES and the Surf Lifesavers who will be protecting our homes and our stupid necks over the holiday season.
Thanks to the ambos who will pull too many lifeless bodies out of mangled cars and rescusitate non-breathing junkies who probably won’t thank them for wasting their hit.
Thanks to the nurses and doctors in all the Accident and Emergency units who will be there to soothe sore and broken bits from over-enthusiastic cricket games on Christmas day afternoon. Or kids that fall off the bike that Santa left under the tree. Or the bloodied noses that will invariably occur when Uncle Jim has a go at Cousin Bazza after three too many beers. Oh, and lest we forget the Burns Unit staff who will be very busy with the results of our Great Aussie Tradition…the “Who’s Going to be the Idiot who Gets Blown Up by the Barbeque This Year?”
Thanks folks. Without you we would have ‘celebrated’ ourselves to extinction by now.
My five day rotation as home health nurse starts on Dec. 25th. I am a bit sad, but actually I will get to visit some dear people who otherwise would have no visitors on the holiday. So it’s not entirely bad. And I have 3 days off around the New Year, so maybe I will do something fun. Or maybe I will sleep. Or perhaps I will dig through my pile of mail and pay my bills. Mmmmmmmmm,
sleep sounds good right about now…
Happy Holidays to everyone!
Along with thanks to all of the firemen, police, and healthcare workers, I’d also like to thank all of those who man the stores, so those of us who remember at the last moment that we’ve forgotten the Cool Whip can run down to the convenience mart to grab some.
I’d also like to thank the people who give up holidays with their families to work in homeless shelters, giving a little bit of Christmas joy to those less fortunate.
And I’d like to thank all of those who donate toys to underpriviledged children. A fellow that works with my husband bought a new X-Box system and three games for two boys who were on the Secret Santa tree at work. Such generosity is really heartwarming, and it’s so much fun to think of how delighted those kids will be on Christmas morning.
Just down the road from here, Bluesman, alongside many of our friends and members of our military family are working tirelessly, in ways that will never be known outside of our community, to keep the entire country safe.
There are many terrible things that will not happen in the next few months, and that will be due in large part to these incredibly dedicated and professional men and women.
I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you all for your selflessness.
May the New Year find you happy, healthy and safe.
Personally, I’d like to see the new year find you, police, EMTs, armed servicemen and women, firefighters, emergency hazmat teams, swat units, medical professionals, corrections officers, various and sundry others, one and all, out of work.
No, I just mean I’d like to see there be no need for your particular and sometimes unpleasant jobs. Of course, I’d still like all of you to be able to support yourselves and your various families, but, well, you know…
[sub]While I’m at it, I want world peace and a goose that lays golden easter eggs, too.[/sub]
Another thank you to those who keep themselves on call over family and friends during this holiday season. Your selflessness does not go unappreciated.
If anyone needs you, you are there.
Thank you.
http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html
Say it right to them.
Thanks Gopher. Neat site.
I’d also like to send out a Merry Christmas to all the people working in hotels, restaurants and tourism as a whole. I spent a few Christmases looking after tourists, and appreciate those who still do. Some of them, I know, are doing it because they don’t celebrate it, but there are also those who were like I was in those days – working on the holiday so that others can spend it with their families (besides, I got less homesick if I had to work).
Gopher, that site’s my next stop.
CJ
Thank you! Have a happy and healthy holiday season…
Thanks guys! I’m on an oil rig for the festive season. Not even any egg nog
And Santa has the hardest time slipping down the derrick
To those away from home, be it several thousand miles away in a hole in the dirt getting shot at, or stuck manning the silent phone at the office, your sacrifice is appreciated. Your family and friends will be thinking of you.
P.S. If you are in the hole in the dirt, keep your flak jacket buttoned up. We’d like you home in one piece.
The best thanks I ever got was a phone call at 3AM Christmas morning. The gentleman on the other end of the line asked me my favorite Christmas song, then pounded out a brief but stunning jazz rendition of Winter Wonderland on a grand piano. He said he was doing this for every emergency hotline and police and fire station he could find, thanked me, then went on the the next lucky person.
To paraphrase Skeezix, I hope you’re all bored completely off your gourd for the next two weeks. Probably not gonna happen for the emergency personnel out there, but it’d sure be nice.
Alongside beckwall, I’d like to say “thanks” to all the home visit nurses (like my wife) who are on duty Christmas Day to offer comfort and relief to those who most surely need it, and help for their relatives on what can be one of the most emotionally stressful days of the year.
May you have a sense of goodwill toward men and just the general holiday spirit… all year long. Hopefully you will be due for some family time shortly.
My dad was a roughneck. Goodness, it seemed that he worked hard and long.
Stay warm and safe.