Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Learning to Go With the Flow

I am totally slacking on the updating! I guess all the excitement has died down temporarily and I'm making the most of the reprieve (napping again....lollygagging around....wandering aimlessly from room to room...)

John just got a four-day trip over Christmas that puts him in San Antonio overnight on Christmas Eve.....a quick 20-hour layover to celebrate Christmas! So, Becca and I are going to fly down there late next week and spend about 5 days in Texas over Christmas (assuming that we can get on the crowded flights on standby). We weren't planning to travel at all during December, but if nothing else, this new life is teaching me to be more flexible. That, my friends, is not an easy job. I'm not really a "go with the flow" type of person!

I am more of a structured type. The type who has a complete meltdown if you change things on me at the last minute. I'm the girl who would throw a raging hissy fit in middle school if I woke up on a Saturday morning and heard my dad say, "Kids! We're taking a local road trip today!" I would lose it. I already had my day planned. And it didn't involve stopping at the Snake Farm or the caverns or hiking. No. My plans involved me painting my toes and nails a hue that matched my shirt and earrings, curling my bangs, putting on shiny lipgloss and blue eyeshadow and going to the mall with my friends. GOSH!

So, now that I'm so flexible (*cough cough* yea, right) I can get on with the here and now. I'm excited we'll for sure get to spend Christmas with John. Otherwise we would have been sitting around wondering if he would get called in off reserve, possibly leaving Becca and I alone up here for Christmas (unless of course we can't get on the crowded planes, in which case we will still be here, alone and huddled together shivering in misery). But, providing things go right, we will get to go see family and have a quick Christmas visit in Texas. Not bad for a first year airline pilot. I am so surprised this worked out the way it did!

Everyone has already mailed all our presents up here. Which, is actually going to ROCK because for the first time ever we won't be spending the days after Christmas packing it all up and mailing it back to ourselves (and by we, I mean me). And, we can come back a few days after Christmas and have another celebration around the brown and brittle Christmas tree that will shrivel while we're out of town! But, hey! We'll just brush those pine needles right off of those gifts and go to town!

What are your holiday plans? If you live away from your families, do you still return every year to visit? And, did you ever spend hours planning how to best match your outfit to your nail color?

10 comments:

Jen said...

Yay for the airline thing working out for Christmas! That's a Christmas miracle in itself. I hope it works out for you.

I don't know what I was like in junior high. I think I have the revisionist memory thing going, you know? I know I spent far too much time worrying about my appearance (it was the 80s; how good could one look?), and that I didn't enjoy taking day trips with my family.

As for Christmas, my sister lives here, but will be in CA with her in-laws for the holiday. We'll be all alone this year! But by all alone, this time it will mean us and 2 kids whose eyes will light up like New York City when they see all the presents under the tree. It would be fun to visit Tim's family in Oregon, but too much of a hassle to do that this year.

Merry Christmas!

Tracy said...

I love my kids waking in their own beds for Christmas. Christmas Eve is here with Randy's mom and sister and family. Christmas day, we are by ourselves and then go to Randy's sister's for dinner. I will miss my family horribly, but it is nice to start our own tradions too.

joanna said...

I cannot imagine trying to fly standby (I'm not sure I understand really how it works). I feel my blood pressure rise days in advance of a flight and become very snippish driving to the airport. It's all the standing in line and having to have a piece of paper to give to someone with the power to not let me go where I need to go. I'm not even sure I want to be brave enough to be so flexible.

As a kid we always drove to my grandparents' house 5 hrs away for Christmas. This year we're driving to be with grandparents and got a lot of 'why are you not staying home for Christmas?' from the people we're going to see! This is the first year with kids that we won't be home. I love both. It's good to have our own traditions, and it's good to be with family and bring back memories of old times.

Angie said...

I am pretty sure that I never coordinated my clothes and nail polish, but it isn't that I wasn't concerned about how I looked.

As a kid, we always celebrated Christmas early at our house and then went to see family in Kansas for about a week.

I think I like having our own Christmas at our own house. I would like to eventually live close enough to family so that we could be at home for Christmas, but celebrate Christmas with family either the days before or after Christms. However, it never bothered us growing up that Santa usually came early.

I am so happy for the three of you being together on Christmas. Will you have to bring a few of Becca's gifts with you? Or , are you just skipping that part?

I hope that you only meet helpful and pleasant people on your travels this time.

Tess said...

Oh man, have you BEEN to that Snake Farm place? I have WONDERED what goes on in there. I mean, I will NEVER, EVER find out, but you know.

We are staying in TX for the holidays, which is AWESOME. Last year we traveled for both Thanksgiving and Christmas and I don't see that happening again, like, EVER.

Anonymous said...

KT - the dirtiest words in the Kindschi family are "plan changer." My mother CANNOT DEAL. And now that I'm dating a man who CANNOT PLAN, I realize... I'm just like my mother.

-Nicole

Anonymous said...

KT - the dirtiest words in the Kindschi family are "plan changer." My mother CANNOT DEAL. And now that I'm dating a man who CANNOT PLAN, I realize... I'm just like my mother.

-Nicole

Smitty 1, 2 , 3 and 4 said...

Slacker?? You are putting my posting updates to shame...

Erin said...

Going with the flow can seriously SUCK. Because it often means giving up CONTROL. NO NO NO!! MUST BE IN CONTROL!

But, on the other hand, I hope this makes you feel better: it has been so long since I painted any nails that I cannot remember how to match nail colors and clothing. Crap! I'm turning into a serious old lady.

Swistle said...

Hm...standby at Christmas...snake farm. Standby at Christmas...snake farm. No, it's hopeless, I can't decide which sounds worse.

Oh, I totally put in time matching my stuff. Okay, peach shirt, peach socks, peach shoes, transfer all my stuff to peach purse; peach nailpolish, GREEN FROSTED eyeshadow, the peachier of my two lipsticks, DONE!