Given my husband's low seniority level at his commercial pilot job, it's pretty much an understanding that he will be working most, if not all, holidays. It seems odd to me that people would sign up to work those days and then just drop them a few days before. Why not just bid to have them off in the first place? This way, we're not always getting stuck celebrating holidays on alternate days.

But alas, they bid their schedule and then drop and we get the shaft. At least now it's a consistent pattern, though there's always part of me that hopes he'll be home for an actual holiday. And who knows. Considering there was a scheduling SNAFU on Halloween that made him home when he thought he would be missing the whole thing, perhaps our luck is changing.

Or on the flip side - maybe we used it all up on October 31!

It's funny how we've gotten used to making changes, and our kids are now used to it too. In fact, I'm not even sure they notice or care. And for the most part, neither do I. though I do admit a little part of me wishes that we didn't have to juggle everything.

Last Christmas, he got called to leave early on Christmas morning, so we scrambled to have Christmas on Christmas Eve, which wasn't such a big deal. We told the kids that Santa stopped at our house first and that was that.

And since he was on call Thanksgiving Day, we celebrated a day early.

What's lovely is that neighbors and friends know our situation and invite us over on the actual holidays, so it's like we get to celebrate two holidays instead of one. And even better, that means less work for me and more leftovers.

I'm not sure if it will be more challenging as the kids get older, but it seems that as long as we keep a positive attitude and celebrate the day as if it were the actual holiday, they do the same right along with us.

I'd love to know how you handle your spouse being away on major holidays.

And a note from Kristen: This will be my last Sometimes Single Mom column here at The Stir. I've enjoyed sharing my experiences and hearing about yours. Best of all, I'm so comforted to know that I'm not alone. If you'd like to read more about my experiences as a Sometimes Single Mom, head over to my personal blog Motherhood Uncensored. 

Photo from Flickr/floodllama