“You form of have a brief household you’re having Christmas dinner with,” mentioned Ms. Fanjoy, 48. Every vacation season, she hangs a stocking in her driver’s-side window, and on Christmas Eve, she pours herself a mug of sizzling chocolate — a convention she used to get pleasure from along with her household whereas driving round neighborhoods taking a look at vacation lights.
“I can’t actually do this in a 75-foot automobile,” she mentioned, laughing.
Not each trucker celebrates Christmas. Rafique Smith, 33, a driver from Philadelphia, treats it like another working day, and this 12 months will most likely eat a easy meal like pan-seared salmon, or a tuna wrap. (For Ramadan, however, he breaks his fasts at Outback Steakhouse.)
Sunny Grewal is normally extra involved with going house to Fresno, Calif., for Diwali, the competition of lights, celebrated every fall in India and its diaspora. One 12 months, he was referred to as to work throughout Diwali, so he had shahi paneer and naan from an area restaurant delivered to his truck.
It’s best to not plan an excessive amount of for the vacations, mentioned Mr. Grewal, 32. There’s all the time an opportunity he’ll be requested to make a supply, and his plans can be disrupted.
Ms. McKinney, the motive force who stopped to cook dinner in Connecticut, has a extra optimistic outlook. She is contemplating beginning a YouTube channel to show folks learn how to cook dinner in vehicles, and present that trucking might be an effective way to reside.
“There are such a lot of issues we are able to’t management,” she mentioned, “and so for us to place ourselves in hurt’s method each day a number of occasions a day, there simply must be a spot the place I can go the place I can have some peace and quiet.”
And what higher oasis, she mentioned, than a well-stocked, well-organized kitchen?
