Here at Sandboxx, there’s a long list of things we’re grateful for this year.
At the top of the list?
Our armed forces and their families.
Our dedicated employees.
Our growing company.
Even on the hardest days, we have things to be thankful for if we look hard enough. Since it’s Thanksgiving week, we asked our employees to share some holiday insight, including what they’re most grateful for in 2018.
As you read their answers, we hope you’ll be inspired to reflect during this holiday week.
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at Sandboxx!
Gretchen – Military Family Advisor & Customer Happiness Team Member
How do you plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?
This year we’re traveling to Camp LeJeune to retire one of my husband’s Marines he worked with from 2010-2012. We’ll celebrate Thanksgiving with some of our Marine Corps friends we lived with at Camp LeJeune when we were stationed there from 2013-2017.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions in your household?
Of course, being from Michigan, we always watch the Detroit Lions play, which can lead to a great Thanksgiving if we win! We also take turns telling each other what we’re thankful for as we share Thanksgiving dinner at the table.
What are you most grateful for this year?
It’s been a bit of a rough year as I lost my mother this past summer, but I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to work for Sandboxx and take care of all our recruit military families. It’s really a true blessing, and, of course, I’m always grateful for my beautiful children and husband.
Bobby – Operations Specialist
How do you plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?
I plan to celebrate it with my wife and her family like we do every year!
What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions in your household?
Our tradition is like a lot of families. We get together early in the day and start drinking and cooking. We deep fry the turkey that is injected with butter, and we have become very good at it! After dinner, we usually play cards and drink for the rest of the night.
What are you most grateful for this year?
I am grateful for our new son! I am also extremely grateful for the opportunity to join the Sandboxx family this year!
Becky – Director of Customer Happiness
How do you plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?
I’m new to the Washington D.C. area after moving here following Hurricane Harvey in Houston. My life has been full of change and growth for the past year, so this Thanksgiving is a time for me to slow down (for a tiny moment!) and think about what I’m thankful for. I won’t be baking a turkey or traveling or doing anything too exciting, but that’s what is special about Thanksgiving to me. It’s a relaxing holiday where everything we already have is enough.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions in your household?
Thanksgiving would happen in many different places when I was growing up. Sometimes I spent it with my grandpa and cousins in Houston, or with my parents in Colorado, or with my grandparents and aunts in Kansas.
This will be our first Thanksgiving on the east coast. While I can’t say we have any traditions, Thanksgiving is more of a feeling for our family, which is great because it can happen anywhere!
What are you most grateful for this year?
I’m most grateful for my loving family and my brilliant friends all over the world, and I’m grateful for the technology that brings me closer to them despite being far away in distance.
Paul – Senior Strategist
How do you plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?
Over the past several years we celebrate Thanksgiving with another retired Marine family we have known since 2006. Both families come together and make the best Thanksgiving meal you can find!
What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions in your household?
My wife (who I consider a chef) will start prepping and cooking the day before and bright and early the day of. We normally go out and do a hunt or fishing either the day before or after Thanksgiving. Our family loves the outdoors!
What are you most grateful for this year?
This was a big year for me. I retired out of the Marine Corps May 31 this year after serving 27 years. This was a big transition not only for me but the whole family. Working with Sandboxx has made that transition go smoothly and has enabled me to spend more quality time with my family — and at the same time stay connected with the military.
Hino – Software Architect
How do you plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?
My wife and I plan to spend Thanksgiving with her family in the Baltimore area this year.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions in your household?
Aside from eating lots of turkey and side dishes, the only Thanksgiving tradition has been to spend it with family. We have never spent Thanksgiving in our tiny apartment, so maybe that’s the tradition? We’re usually either seeing her family in Baltimore or my family in Chicago.
What are you most grateful for this year?
I have everything to be thankful for this year. I have an amazing wife who supports me through everything! And, this year, because of some great colleagues at Sandboxx, I’ve been able to produce some of the most inspired work I’ve done throughout my career. Not a single day at Sandboxx feels like work. I get to write awesome code and learn new and exciting technologies. This is my career?! I couldn’t be more thankful.
Eric – Backend/Data Engineer
How do you plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?
This year my parents and sister are coming down to D.C. from Boston to visit me and my wife. They have not been able to visit us since we moved here a year and a half ago. It will be fun to show them around the city and eat some good food. My wife and I are gonna cook and eat our own small Thanksgiving meal as we all can’t fit together in my small apartment. But, we will all be going out to eat at a restaurant for a big family meal.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions in your household?
We don’t have a lot of specific traditions in my family — just cook a turkey and have a nice family meal. My wife loves to cook and she always takes the holiday as an opportunity to make a bunch of really amazing food. She makes candied yams and cranberry sauce every year, and they are always a hit with whoever gets to eat them.
What are you most grateful for this year?
I’m grateful to have my family happy, healthy, and close by this year so we can all celebrate together. And that it’s not snowing yet!
Kim – Customer Happiness Team Member
How do you plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?
Since we are stationed very far away from family, we celebrate with other Marine Corps friends who have become family.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions in your household?
We always get a paper tablecloth that the kids can color on. And, eat lots of dessert.
What are you most grateful for this year?
Our three children who are happy and healthy.
Michelle – Data Analyst
How do you plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?
I am going home to New Ipswich, New Hampshire to be with my family and friends. I don’t get home very often so it’s always really great to be able to get home to see everyone.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions in your household?
My favorite tradition is having a really large group together at Thanksgiving time my family celebrates with our extended family and our neighbors and their extended family so the group can get really large and it can be a little crazy but a lot of fun.
What are you most grateful for this year?
I’m most thankful that I have the ability to travel home and be with my loved ones during the holidays, there are many men and women in our armed forces who don’t get the chance.
Sam – DevOps Engineer
How do you plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?
This year for Thanks Giving I am heading out to Arizona for my first Family Retreat, and I get to bring Swamy, my boss, and best bud! We have a range of outdoor activities like riding ATVs and hiking in the beautiful mountainside. We will also all be spending a lot of time together in the kitchen as we are all total foodies.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions in your household?
Cooking together without question is my favorite. I am hopeful that this year we will start some new traditions this year.
What are you most grateful for this year?
Getting to introduce part of my family to my work family. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to work in an environment where I can call my coworkers family, while at the same time loving the product I build.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
