Holiday Plans

Tomorrow I'll be on a plane with Kate and her sister Emily to visit their family (my future in-laws) in Selah, WA. And, as I do before every major trip (especially one that requires flying), I'm struggling with anxiety. It's not the visiting the O'Connells that's stressing me out; I've already met them and they're all great people. I think it's just the thought of flying in a plane.

Hey, intellectually I know that it's perfectly safe...safer than traversing the roads of Washington state during December. But emotionally, I hate the thought that I'm a couple miles off the ground and there's absolutely nothing I can do to control my fate. Don't get me wrong; I totally trust the airplane engineers, the pilots, and the flight controllers to get me where I'm going safe and sound. It's just that my fear of heights, especially when I can't control the situation, always kicks in when I fly.

It's irrational, I know, and I keep trying to remind myself of it. At the very least, I'll have Kate with me; that should help. Gotta be brave in front of my lady, right? :-) She's not terribly fond of heights either but she's flown so many times that she can almost tune it out. She's warned me that if I don't get over myself soon, we might have to take two or three flights a year just to build me some backbone. ;-)

It should be fine though. Kate assures me that we'll be kept busy once we arrive in Selah. Her mother is preparing a Thanksgiving dinner for the family the day we arrive (tomorrow). Since the whole family is rarely together except around Christmas, Kate's mother likes to throw Thanksgiving in there as well. No problems here! I never turn down a good roasted turkey.

We'll stay there for about a week, flying back into DIA on the 29th. It'll be late in the afternoon but we're going to drive down to Colorado Springs to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. Dianna and Heath are letting us stay with them for a couple of nights. We restrained ourselves this year and didn't get Julie too many presents. ;-)

Kate and I head back up to Fort Collins on the 31st, hopefully with enough to time to get my place organized for the annual New Year's Eve party I host. We might have some new folks show up (friends of friends) so that'll be fun. We'll usually play board games, card games, and (if our women-folk let us get away with it) video games. It's always a big potluck with plenty to nibble on during the night. Everyone tries to make to midnight so we can all toast the new year. Then everyone crashes hard. In the morning, our friend Tammy Sue cooks a massive breakfast for anyone who's still around and we all spend part of the afternoon goofing off some more.

Busy holiday! But fun nonetheless. In case I don't get a chance to update during my trip, I hope everyone reading this (and even those who aren't) has a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!