CLAY COUNTY – As most unwrap presents and celebrate Christmas, the workday doesn’t change for a lot of Clay County residents.

People still get sick. There are emergencies. Somebody must make the coffee and serve the scrambled eggs. Gasoline and batteries need to be sold, along with a sausage biscuit. Speeding tickets will be written and people will go to jail. Drivers will need wreckers and people will need medicine and a gallon of milk.

“We don’t have holidays,” said Katie Germain, the charge nurse at Orange Park Medical Center. “There are no days off in the emergency department.”

Like others, Germain will work on Christmas Day. She hopes for the best but is prepared for the worst. Emergencies and holidays aren’t bound by a calendar.

The 9-1-1 call center and patrols will be fully staffed at the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. Most convenience stores will be open, but major groceries like Winn-Dixie and Publix will join Walmart by giving its employees a rare day off.

For others, it’s business as usual.

“People will always need help,” said Penny Candrilli, a dispatcher with the sheriff’s office. “Our tree is up [at the call center] and it’s been decorated. We will have a little pot luck and a secret Santa here on Christmas Day. But for our operations, it’s a normal crew. People will get sick. People will need help. People will get hurt.”

Candrilli said dispatchers are divided into red and blue teams. They alternate holidays and it’s her red group’s turn to work Christmas day.

“It’s not the day that matters, it’s when you’re with your family,” she said. “I will be with my work family in the beginning of the day and my family later.”

Candrilli will celebrate the holiday late Wednesday after her shift ends at 6 p.m.

A year ago, CCSO only made three arrests on Christmas Day. Two were for domestic battery and a third was for possession of heroin. In 2017, there were five arrests for domestic battery and one for aggravated battery.

Jenny Adame is eager to work another Christmas at the Waffle House on Blanding Boulevard.

“We never close,” Adame said. “Everybody works their normal schedule. We usually have a nice little breakfast, then things slow down a bit at lunchtime – turkey time.”

Servers and cooks at Waffle House will earn time-and-a-half, Adame said.

Hardee’s is scheduled to be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., while Burger King, McDonald’s and Krystal will be closed.

Like the dispatchers in the call center, holiday schedules rotate at OPMC, Germain said.

“It was my holiday to work,” she said. “We’re going to do Christmas on the 26^th at my house. My family understands.”

She will celebrate with her co-workers at the hospital, too.

“We’re going to have a pot luck,” she said. “We’re all working together. We’re open 365, 24-7. We keep going. We sacrifice time during the holidays to take care of the community.”

Germain doesn’t expect to be busy early in the day as families huddle around the tree and exchange gifts. But that usually changes later in the day.

“It tends to get a little busier in the afternoon and on Dec. 26^th, it’s really busy,” she said.

Then everyone gets prepared for the next holiday – New Year’s Day – in a week.

“We’ll be here,” Adame said.