5 long years

For the entire 5 years I have lived in Antarctica I have complained. Non stop. That's right, non-stop complaining and if you don't believe me, believe the poor ears of friends who have had to put up with my non-stop complaining and trust me, they will tell you how much they've had to put up with. Poor souls.

It has taken 5 years of non-stop complaining to stop complaining. Well, not completely stop, that wouldn't be any fun. But I now mix a healthy complaint with a spoonful of positive.

It took 5 years. I was advised by very wise counsel that it could take that long and trust me, 5 years ago I scoffed at wise counsel as if to say "I won't stop at five years. I'll take your five years and top it with 10 years".

Same wise counsel also advised that a day would come when I would want to just stay home for the holidays in my own home with my own traditions with the little family I have created for myself. Again, scoff, scoff, scoff. That would never come because I would always, always travel hours and hours and slice and dice myself up between 3 Thanksgiving celebrations.

Guess what? That day came and the lesson to learn here: Never scoff at wise counsel. They are wise because they've been there.

I stayed in Antarctica this year for Thanksgiving. Something I thought I would never do, we did and I feel slightly guilty when I say, it was still a wonderful Thanksgiving even though it was spent in Antarctica. Let me tell you, these folks know how to do Thanksgiving.

My choice to stay was one based solely on medical reasons. I didn't have the prettiest post delivery scenario with Camille and due to that, I'm attached to my Dr.'s hip like glue. We have a plan to keep me from not passing out this time and from not requiring a double blood transfusion. Oh, let's not forget to throw in double pneumonia for goodness sakes. We decided not to take any chances and stay home, let's not test the fates here. I was sad at first with this decision. I teared up and felt all sorts of sorry for myself. But once I decided to end my tail of woes, I looked around and realized that we had more invitations than I knew what to do with. Our choice brought us to our dear friends family celebration were we felt loved and welcomed. And the best part? No passive aggressive slurs from parental figures on how unfair it was that they got less time or so and so got more time or how we didn't stay awake long enough or eat enough of the food or ate to much food or only stayed a short while when last month they got a longer while.

It felt like home and the drive only took 15 minutes to get there, and 5 long years of complaining.