How I Spent Thanksgiving

2012-11-23 15:35:27.000 – Cyrena Briede,  Director of Summit Operations

Me and the crew flying our kite.

While others are traveling to and from family and friends this Thanksgiving, I decided to instead spend the holiday with the summit staff. Sure, my family was probably a little disappointed that I didn’t come home, but I thought it was a great opportunity to spend with our fantastic observers who weren’t able to go home either. Often we find ourselves spending more time with the people we work with than our own families, so our coworkers become a family too of sorts. The summit is no exception.

I had three goals for my time up here. The first was to catch up on some work. There were a few things that I needed to get done on the summit that we never have time for during shift change, and I was able to start addressing those items. The second was to come up here in the capacity of a volunteer and spend some time in our kitchen. Dinner was my responsibility on Wednesday, we worked together to make a fantastic Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, and today I’m using the rest of the turkey to make lots of soup. I love cooking and efficiency is important, nothing goes to waste up here! My final goal was for all of us to have fun this Thanksgiving. Between observations yesterday we were able to fly kites in the 25 mph winds (calm by summit standards). Good times were had by all, I laughed till my stomach hurt between Rebecca’s flying talents, Roger’s possessed camera, Steve melting his gloves via friction with the kite string, and frantically running after Ryan’s GoPro2 camera.

Even though we all had to work through the holiday, we made the best of it. We are all so very thankful to be a part of such a wonderful organization with so much support from our members and community. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Observer footnote: Our year-end fund drive is taking place through December 31, and we need your support. Please make a tax-deductible donation of any amount on MountWashington.org/Giving. As a nonprofit, people-powered institution since our founding in 1932, we need your help to continue our work! Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Cyrena Briede,  Director of Summit Operations