As a pilot I sometimes must work during holidays, and Christmas is no exception. And of all the holidays during the year, Christmas is the hardest one to get off. Every month I and hundreds of other pilots bid for our preferred schedule, which is then awarded based on our seniority. My first year (2007) I was still in training, so my seniority didn’t even come into play. Sensibly, the instructor pilots in the training department didn’t want to work on Christmas, so I had that Christmas off as well.
The following year I had moved up enough in seniority that while I was still a reserve pilot, I was senior enough among the reserve pilots to hold Christmas off. As a junior airline pilot, I was supposed to have an awful schedule, but reality was proving quite a bit better. At least up until then.
But then my airline furloughed over 130 pilots and I found that my ability to reliably have certain days off was, well, unreliable to say the least. And then it was time to bid for my December schedule. I used every available resource at my disposal and still ended up working the 22nd through the 26th. Needless to say it was probably my worst Christmas ever. I missed being there to help Annette with all the preparations and I missed seeing the fruit of those efforts on Christmas morning as the children woke up to find what Santa had brought them. I missed Christmas dinner with my wife and children, with my parents and my in-laws and my siblings. I even missed the family photo we take every year with my in-laws. I had to be photoshopped in.
The scripture reads, “there must needs be an opposition in all things,” and that it’s directly because their negative counterparts exist that virtue, health and happiness are recognizable. This year has proven that true to me. I was fortunate to get a better schedule, and while not perfect, I could at least work with it. I returned home on the afternoon of the 22nd and didn’t need to be back to work until Christmas night. Of course, as a commuter pilot, I would need to leave around 8:30 in the morning on Christmas day in order to be on time. We had our family dinner last night on Christmas Eve with my wife and children plus my parents and my in-laws and afterward we read the Christmas story from the New Testament and sang a few carols. Later in the evening my brother Brian and his wife Laura stopped by, having just arrived from Houston and I finally got to meet their baby daughter. My sister Alison and her husband Chris picked them up from the airport and so they also came in to visit. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve.
This morning Annette and I awoke at 6:40 to unmistakable sounds of children. I happily if sleepily watched the delight in their faces as they opened their gifts. When 8:30 drew near and it was time to excuse myself to get ready, I didn’t mind. I had been richly fed and was content. It was in some ways my best Christmas ever.
There is a postscript to this day. Upon arrival in Washington-Dulles tonight I discovered that the flight I was supposed to operate was canceled because the captain had called in sick and there were no more reserve captains who could take his place. I could have stayed home. I had a suspicion that something might happen and made sure to check before I boarded the flight from Salt Lake City, but at that point all still looked good. But even though I could have spent the rest of the day with my family, I didn’t feel resentful. Disappointed, to be sure, but there was nothing that could be done. No, mostly I felt happy and grateful to have been able to have such a wonderful Christmas Eve and morning. Sometimes you have to taste the bitter to know to prize the good.
